Receiving an egg from a donor can help a woman to get pregnant even when her own body is no longer releasing eggs, or her eggs are not viable for reproduction. The egg is combined with sperm in a laboratory--it can be her partner's sperm or donor sperm--and the resulting embryo is placed into the woman's body where it can develop. Fertility clinics perform extensive screening of egg donors to ensure safety, but receiving a donor egg still carries certain risks.
Infectious Diseases
Egg donors are tested for such infectious diseases as hepatitis, syphilis and HIV, as well as genetic diseases. But in the case of an HIV infection acquired recently, as in the last 6 months, it is possible that current testing will not pick it up. The likelihood of this happening, however, is "extremely low," according to the Beach Center For Infertility, Endocrinology and IVF. One way to avoid the risk is to have the donor tested, then have her egg fertilized and the resulting embryo frozen. Six months later, if the donor remain negative on a repeat test, the embryo can be implanted. However, frozen embryos have a lower success rate than fresh ones in producing a viable pregnancy.
Donor Unreliability
Fertility clinics also require that egg donors undergo extensive genetic and psychological assessments. For example, the Center for Human Reproduction, with locations in New York and Illinois, advertises that even when the donor is anonymous, the recipients will "know every last detail of the donor's medical, genetic and family history, her social and educational background and her psychological make-up, inclusive of her motivations to donate, and details of her appearance." But it is possible for donors to employ deception or omission during the process, so that a psychological or genetic problem would go undetected. Thus, the recipient could end up carrying a child at risk for problems.
Multiple Births
Pregnancy with twins, triplets or higher-order multiples is the primary risk of fertility treatment with donated eggs, according to the IntegraMed Fertility Network, which consists of more than 30 fertility centers across the United States. Though in the early years of the technique, multiple births were common, nowadays fewer embryos are transferred--usually only two or three--and so the risk is reduced. More than 50 percent of pregnancies achieved through egg donation are single-births, while 36 percent are twins.
