What is the Shared Donor Program?

Shared Donor means that more than one couple can be matched with one egg donor. The cycles of each couple are synchronized and the eggs that are retrieved from that donor are shared between the recipients. An analysis of our experience with over 800 egg donor cycles clearly demonstrates that in 60% of cycles a single donor makes enough eggs to share with three recipients, in 20% of cycles there are enough for two recipients, in 10% of cycles there are only enough for one recipient, and in 10% of cycles there are an insufficient number of eggs, requiring cycles cancellation.

In a donor egg cycle, an average of 21 eggs are retrieved. 60% (13) of those eggs fertilize and 60% (8) of the fertilized eggs produce good quality embryos. Our goal is to transfer one or two good quality embryos to the recipient. If any extra good quality embryos remain, they can be frozen for future use. In a traditional egg donation cycle, one or two embryos are transferred to the recipient and the remaining embryos are frozen for the couple to use in the future. In the Shared Donor program, most of the good quality embryos will be transferred to recipient couples, leaving fewer embryos for cryopreservation.

Shared Donor Success

Currently, ninety percent of our donor egg cycles are performed with one recipient receiving all the eggs produced by one donor (1:1) and in 10% of cases a donor has been shared by two recipients (1:2). The 1:2 program has had excellent success rates and has been very popular with recipients who benefit from sharing the fixed costs. We believe the new 1:3 shared donor option will offer additional financial benefit by further reducing the cost of egg donation while still resulting in an estimated 41% delivery rate per embryo transfer.