Embryo donation is an assisted reproduction technique during which embryos of different male and female genetic background are transferred. This treatment is used when both parts of the couple are unable to become pregnant with their own oocytes and spermatozoa.
Embryo donation programme
The transferred embryos can be of the following origin:
A. From couples who have been in in vitro treatment and don’t want more children and therefore donate officially the embryos to other couples. The embryos are from oocyte and/or sperm donation. The embryos are frozen.
B. They can also come from couples who decided to have only fresh embryos transferred. According to Spanish law couples have the right to freeze surplus embryos but are not obliged to.
In Institut Marques we do treat many foreign patients, often from far away countries who do not want to freeze their embryos since they prefer to repeat treatment directly with fresh embryos in order to increase their success chances.
Therefore every week we do have fresh embryo donations, mainly of oocyte and sperm donation origin.
EMBRYO DONATION
Institut Marquès
Pregnancy / transfer
57,1%
Clinical pregnancy
48,2%
Live birth rate
37.9%
Twin pregnancies
2,4%
Embryo adoption programme
The embryos come from healthy patients who are younger than 35 years and received successfully in vitro treatment and decided to have no more children.
These embryos often come from egg cell and/or sperm donation.
For the Embryo- Adoption you will need to travel to Barcelona just for the embryo transfer, because we can assign Embryos in our facilities in London.
They perform embryo donation transfer
Couples with long term infertility problems and repeated failures with in vitro fertilisation and/or egg donation.
Women of good physical health.
Women without male partner who wish for a child.
Patients with repeated miscarriages.
Due to the restrictive laws in other states, patients come from different countries.
Treatment for embryo donation
It’s easy and painless.
The preparation of the uterus to receive the embryos consists of patches which are applied on the skin and vaginal suppositories. In a few days the uterus is prepared and the embryos can be thawed and transferred. No committal to the hospital is needed, merely physical efforts should be avoided.
After two weeks a pregnancy test needs to be done.
If you get pregnant, this pregnancy is considered a normal one. It is necessary to continue with the hormonal replacement therapy until you are 70 days pregnant.
The pregnancy check-ups are performed by your local gynaecologist.
Process of embryo donation
During the initial consultation the woman’s health is checked and a gynaecological examination is performed. Please bring any previous revelant medical report with you.
A scan will be performed and a painless catheter test is done. This is to choose the best catheter for transfer.
You will receive indications on how to proceed with the treatment and a date for the thawing and transfer of the embryos will be agreed.
Success rate
The success rate for each embryo adoption cycle in our centre was 57%.
To avoid the risk of future coincidence among the siblings, the especially designed assignment system assures that the embryos are distributed over different states or countries.
The last 500 cycles correspond to women coming from 30 different countries.
For the Embryo- Adoption you will need to travel to Barcelona just for the embryo transfer, because we can assign Embryos in our facilities in London.
Waiting list
There is no waiting list, as soon as all previous tests have been made and the preparatory treatment has started transfer takes place approximately two to four weeks later.
Differences between embryo adoption and donation
The difference lies within the legal situation. For the “Donation Programme” the embryos come from couples who explicitly and in writing give their embryos away to other couples. In the “Adoption Programme” the destination of the embryos has not been chosen and therefore they are legally under the protection of the centre.
In any of these two cases it is only necessary to sign the consent form for the Assisted Reproduction Technique.