Sometimes the problem with conception is that a woman does not have enough healthy eggs, or there is some genetic disease that can be passed on to her children. In this situation, reproductive specialists recommend using donor material, that is, eggs from another woman. This is a forced measure for those who cannot have their own healthy children.
In addition, the age of the woman also plays a role. At some stage, a woman’s body may not respond to stimulation, and eggs for fertilization cannot be obtained. There are also cases when a woman goes through early menopause. And, if its main effects can be corrected by hormonal medications, the eggs will not be obtained. In all these cases, donor material is used.
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According to ethical and legal requirements, donors who donate their oocytes (germ cells) to help other people – whether sperm or eggs – remain incognito. This means that you will get as much information about them as possible, but you will never meet him or her in person. This is a very important ethical point, designed to protect both parties from the moral trauma associated with the issue of paternity and motherhood. Nevertheless, each clinic is fully responsible for the quality of the oocytes provided, and the donors undergo a strict selection process. In some cases, it is possible to use oocytes from a woman who underwent an IVF procedure and whose frozen oocytes are left over. This requires this woman’s consent and, of course, her health data. This procedure of “adopting” embryos reduces the cost of the procedure and is probably the only way to get to know the other party personally, if, of course, they agree to it.
Otherwise, the IVF procedure does not differ from the standard one – a donor’s egg is fertilized with sperm and placed in the uterus of the future mother. If the partner’s sperm is of insufficient quality, a donor sperm can be used.
If the couple does not want to use donor sperm, and the father’s sperm is of insufficient quality (but without the risk of genetic diseases), it is possible to use assistive technology, including ICSI (ICSI).
In this procedure, not just any sperm is placed in the egg, but a single sperm. Before that, the healthiest and most motile sperm that can fertilize the egg is extracted from the man’s sperm. It is then separated from the rest and artificially placed into the egg.
Who uses XY?
Couples with infertility problems due to insufficient quality of male sperm. If both parents do not want to use donor material and the spermogram shows at least a small number of healthy and motile sperm, ICSI may be used.
ICSI gives a much better chance of normal fertilization, especially since more than one egg is used for the procedure. Also, according to statistics, ICSI increases the success of IVF in general, that is, it increases the chance of pregnancy. This is simple to explain – usually couples’ resort to ICSI, in which infertility is due to the male factor, and the egg and the woman’s body is completely healthy and ready to accept the fetus.
But before undergoing ICSI, it is very important to undergo a full range of genetic disease diagnostics beforehand. Often male infertility is associated with genetic defects, and then the body itself fights the possibility of passing the disease on to children. Unfortunately, when genetic abnormalities are detected, the couple has nothing to do but use donor sperm.