Egg donation

Egg donation
Intervention
MeSH	D018587
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Egg donation is the process by which a woman donates eggs to enable another woman to conceive as part of an assisted reproduction treatment or for biomedical research. For assisted reproduction purposes, egg donation typically involves in vitro fertilization technology, with the eggs being fertilized in the laboratory; more rarely, unfertilized eggs may be frozen and stored for later use. Egg donation is a third party reproduction as part of assisted reproductive technology (ART).

In the United States, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) has issued guidelines for these procedures, and the FDA has a number of guidelines as well. There are boards in countries outside of the US which have the same regulations. However, egg donation agencies in the U.S. can legally choose whether to abide by ASRM regulations or not.

The first child born from egg donation was reported in Australia in 1983. In July 1983, a clinic in Southern California reported a pregnancy using egg donation, which led to the birth of the first American child born from egg donation on February 3, 1984. This procedure was performed at the Harbor UCLA Medical Center and the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine. In the procedure, which is no longer used today, a fertilized egg that was just beginning to develop was transferred from one woman in whom it had been conceived by artificial insemination to another woman who gave birth to the infant 38 weeks later. The sperm used in the artificial insemination came from the husband of the woman who bore the baby.

Prior to this, thousands of infertile women, single men and gay male couples had adoption as the only path to parenthood. Advances in IVF and egg donation set the stage to allow open and candid discussion of oocyte and embryo donation as a common practice. This breakthrough has given way to the donation of human oocytes and embryos as a common practice similar to other donations such as blood and major organ donations. At the time of this announcement the event was captured by major news carriers and fueled healthy debate and discussion on this practice which affected the future of reproductive medicine by creating a platform for further advancements in woman's health.

This scientific breakthrough changed the outlook for those who were unable to have children due to female infertility and for women who are at high risk for passing on genetic disorders. As IVF developed, the procedures used in egg donation paralleled that development: the egg donor's eggs are now harvested from her ovaries in an outpatient surgical procedure and fertilized in the laboratory, the same procedure used on IVF patients, but the resulting embryo or embryos is then transferred into the intended mother instead of into the woman who provided the egg. Donor oocytes thus give women a mechanism to become pregnant and give birth to a child that will be their biological child (assuming that the recipient woman carries the baby), but not their genetic child. In cases where the recipient's womb is absent or unable to carry a pregnancy, or in cases involving gay male couples, a gestational surrogate is used and the embryos are implanted into her per an agreement with the recipients. The combination of egg donation and surrogacy has enabled gay men, including singer Elton John and his partner, to have biological children. Oocyte and embryo donation now account for approximately 18% of in vitro fertilization recorded births in the US.

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