Information on egg donation

Egg donation is one of many options provided by modern reproductive medicine for the treatment of involuntary childlessness. Donor eggs are used by women whose ovaries do not react to stimulation (due to factors such as advanced age, early menopause, hereditary diseases, infertility due to chemo- or radiotherapy or following a surgical procedure), or if the ovarian reserves are diminished. In these cases, egg donor treatment is often the only option that will lead to pregnancy.

For the egg donation, the donor's ovaries are stimulated with medication and the ripened follicles can then be aspirated under anaesthetic and the eggs extracted. Eggs retrieved in this way are fertilised with prepared sperm by in vitro fertilisation or microinjection (ICSI) and after a few days they are transferred to the recipient and/or cryopreserved (frozen).

In accordance with Swiss law, at birth you as the recipient/couple are recorded as the legal parents of the child, and the donor has no claim to the child.

Each donor undergoes a stringent selection process comprising comprehensive blood tests; medical, psychological and gynaecological examinations; karyotype determination (cytologically identifiable chromosome characteristics) and genetic profiling, through which various diseases can be avoided.

Great care is taken to select the right egg donor for each patient, taking into account many individual factors. This extremely high level of quality allows for the best possible matching of physical characteristics of the donor and recipient.

The average success rate per cycle is 60%, which is, among other things, due to the donor only being stimulated for one recipient. Thus only as many eggs are produced as are needed for the recipient’s treatment. This assures significantly higher quality eggs.

Pregnancies resulting from egg donation are no different – in particular with respect to birth and breastfeeding – from natural pregnancies.