Ovum donation program at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei

The ovum donation program at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital currently confronts the difficulty of limited oocyte resources. The oocytes might be donated from the surplus oocytes of IVF patients. However, after the successful introduction of embryo cryopreservation, patients preferred to have their surplus embryos cryop-reserved and thus, few surplus oocyts were available for donation from IVF program. In addition, official policies discourage use of oocytes donated by consanguineous relatives of either one of the recipient couple or for financial rewards. Among the first three oocytes recipients, with ovarian failure, one chemical pregnancy resulted. Oral premarin and transvaginal and intramuscular progesterone were administered as hormone replacement. The fourth recipient, who had had bilateral oophorectomy, received transdermal estradiol patch (Estraderm) and transvaginal progesterone (Utrogestan) as hormone replacement. The Estraderm/Utrogestan protocol became standard in later cases since the first ongoing pregnancy was achieved in patient 4. We feel this protocol satisfies the required ample levels of hormone replacement for ovum donation.