Using a Fresh Egg Donation Cycle vs. Frozen Egg Banks
An explanation of the pros and cons of each process
What is the difference?
Freshly Donated Eggs vs. Frozen Bank Eggs
When you use Egg Donation to create your family you have the option between two different types of Egg Donation. The first would be to have an Egg Donor do a fresh Egg Donation cycle, synced up with the Mother’s (or Surrogate’s) cycle, to be implanted shortly after. The second type of Egg Donation would be to utilize frozen eggs from an Egg Bank. These eggs would have been frozen from a previous donation using a process called “vitrification”. These eggs would need to be thawed before they can be inseminated with sperm to create an embryo.
Using a Fresh Egg Donation Cycle vs. Frozen Egg Banks
An explanation of The pros and cons of each process
What is the difference?
Freshly Donated Eggs vs. Frozen Bank Eggs
When you use Egg Donation to create your family you have the option between two different types of Egg Donation. The first would be to have an Egg Donor do a fresh Egg Donation cycle, synced up with the Mother’s (or Surrogate’s) cycle, to be implanted shortly after. The second type of Egg Donation would be to utilize frozen eggs from an Egg Bank. These eggs would have been frozen from a previous donation using a process called “vitrification”. These eggs would need to be thawed before they can be inseminated with sperm to create an embryo.
Why we only do fresh Egg Donation Cycles:
Here at Conceptual Options, our goal is to keep our client’s potential costs to a minimum while also providing them with a service that can increase their success rate. The rates are better and we can provide a better outcome to our clients by keeping with only utilizing fresh Egg Donation cycles.
4 Decades of use in the IVF Field
Higher Success Rate
No vitrification damage
Larger batches for Parents
or continue below for more detailed information:
Egg Donation Cycle
Also known as a fresh Egg Donation cycle or retrieval. With this method, no eggs have been donated until after the intended parents have chosen their ideal egg donor and have gone through the legal documents and medical screenings of the egg donor. The egg donor will receive medications to stimulate her production of eggs at a certain time to line up with the retrieval.
Egg Donation Cycle
Also known as a fresh Egg Donation cycle or retrieval. With this method, no eggs have been donated until after the intended parents have chosen their ideal egg donor and have gone through the legal documents and medical screenings of the egg donor. The egg donor will receive medications to stimulate her production of eggs at a certain time to line up with the retrieval.
Egg Bank
When you are ready to start searching for your egg donor, we will give you access to our Egg Donor database. Here are just a few of the questions to think about when you start your search for the donor that will help you start your family. Are you looking for an Egg Donor that physically resembles you? Someone that is artistically or musically talented? Or how about someone that is exceptionally intelligent? Our trained and qualified staff can help you to find the exact donor that will help you begin the family of your dreams.
Egg Bank
When you are ready to start searching for your egg donor, we will give you access to our Egg Donor database. Here are just a few of the questions to think about when you start your search for the donor that will help you start your family. Are you looking for an Egg Donor that physically resembles you? Someone that is artistically or musically talented? Or how about someone that is exceptionally intelligent? Our trained and qualified staff can help you to find the exact donor that will help you begin the family of your dreams.
What about the cost?
Between the two, a fresh egg donation cycle will be more costly upfront. This will be due to the retrieval needing to take place and the medications involved for both the Donor and the intended mother. With frozen egg banks, this part of the process has already been done, but frozen egg banks tend to split up the eggs from a single donation into smaller batches. This results in parents receiving fewer eggs on average when using frozen egg banks. This can increase the cost of frozen eggs quickly if the small batch obtained from the egg bank doesn’t result in a live birth and another batch must be obtained by the intended parents. In this example, the cost of utilizing an egg bank twice will be higher than utilizing a fresh egg donation cycle from the beginning.
What about the cost?
Between the two, a fresh egg donation cycle will be more costly upfront. This will be due to the retrieval needing to take place and the medications involved for both the Donor and the intended mother. With frozen egg banks, this part of the process has already been done, but frozen egg banks tend to split up the eggs from a single donation into smaller batches. This results in parents receiving fewer eggs on average when using frozen egg banks. This can increase the cost of frozen eggs quickly if the small batch obtained from the egg bank doesn’t result in a live birth and another batch must be obtained by the intended parents. In this example, the cost of utilizing an egg bank twice will be higher than utilizing a fresh egg donation cycle from the beginning.
Which one is better?
That is going to come down to being a judgment call that the intended parents will have to make based on their finances and risk factors. In our anecdotal experience, Doctors prefer fresh egg donation cycles as much as possible due to the higher success rate of using fresh donor eggs. Fresh cycles can also result in larger batches of eggs than an egg bank will provide. Donors in some cases can produce 20+ eggs while egg bank batches tend to be between 6-8 eggs. Another important thing to note is that fresh eggs do not have to go through the vitrification (freezing) process and thawing process as well. These processes can both be damaging the eggs and decrease the likelihood of live birth.
Which one is better?
That is going to come down to being a judgment call that the intended parents will have to make based on their finances and risk factors. In our anecdotal experience, Doctors prefer fresh egg donation cycles as much as possible due to the higher success rate of using fresh donor eggs. Fresh cycles can also result in larger batches of eggs than an egg bank will provide. Donors in some cases can produce 20+ eggs while egg bank batches tend to be between 6-8 eggs. Another important thing to note is that fresh eggs do not have to go through the vitrification (freezing) process and thawing process as well. These processes can both be damaging the eggs and decrease the likelihood of live birth.
A Note about Reporting:
Egg Donation Banks are not required by law to disclose their successful live birth numbers. Only Clinics are required to do so. There is a great resource on the CDC’s website that provides an interactive map that you can use to search for clinics by zip code. When on the CDC ART Success Rate Map, clicking on a specific clinic will give you a breakdown of many things including the services they provide, the success rates of their patients using their own eggs, the success rates of their patients using donor eggs, clinic data, patient characteristics, and much more. The following links are to the CDC’s main ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies ) page. and also directly to the ART Clinic Success Rate Map:
A Note about Reporting:
Egg Donation Banks are not required by law to disclose their successful live birth numbers. Only Clinics are required to do so. There is a great resource on the CDC’s website that provides an interactive map that you can use to search for clinics by zip code. When on the CDC ART Success Rate Map, clicking on a specific clinic will give you a breakdown of many things including the services they provide, the success rates of their patients using their own eggs, the success rates of their patients using donor eggs, clinic data, patient characteristics, and much more. The following links are to the CDC’s main ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies ) page. and also directly to the ART Clinic Success Rate Map:
Any Questions?
If at any point you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to call or contact us for more information.