An oocyte donation program with goserelin down-regulation of voluntary donors

In ovum donation programs oocytes can be requested from infertile women going through an in vitro fertilization cycle. Currently, when embryos can be cryopreserved, these donors have virtually disappeared. Instead, most donors have been healthy fertile volunteers willing to go through an IVF attempt solely for the purpose of donating all oocytes.

Sixty-four patients had 93 started cycles of oocyte donation from 59 donors. Twenty recipients had primary ovarian failure, 24 had secondary ovarian failure, 15 had had repeated failures in earlier IVF attempts and five were carriers of genetic diseases. The donors were 51 healthy volunteers recruited through the press. Eight patients from an IVF program donated excess oocytes. Donors were not paid and their mean age was 30 years. To minimize discomfort of the treatment, a long-acting GnRH-agonist, goserelin, was used for down-regulation.

The pregnancy rate per transfer with fresh embryos was 28.4% (23/81) and with frozen-thawed embryos, 17% (3/18). Twenty-one healthy infants have been born including one set of triplets and three sets of twins. Nine pregnancies ended in abortion and one in intrauterine fetal death. The most common complications of pregnancy were pre-eclampsia and pregnancy-induced hypertension (41.2%, 7/17). Ten of 17 patients delivered by cesarean section (58.8%).

It was possible, through the press, to obtain highly motivated oocyte donors, who go through IVF treatment solely for altruistic reasons. Oocyte recipients appear to have many complications in their pregnancies. Until more data are available, these patients need a high standard of obstetric care.