Donor egg banking: deliveries from cryopreserved donor oocytes-a new paradigm for egg donation?

Written by Steve Masler, CEO of Fertility SOURCE Companies

One of a number of recent studies of the effectiveness of frozen eggs. This study is interesting in that it compares--for donor derived eggs--vitrification vs. slow freeze, and fresh cycles vs. frozen cycles, albeit with a very small sample. The study would seem to demonstrate the comparability of vitrification and slow freeze and the superior results with frozen over fresh eggs. More studies, such as this one, are tending to appear that demonstrate the potential for frozen egg results to exceed comparable results with fresh eggs. The profession appears to be encouraged to consider more use of frozen eggs than ever before, providing more results to help determine true effectiveness and efficiency of cryopreservation for oocytes.

Please note: At this time the abstract to this article is not available.

EMD Serono launches patient registry for egg freezing

Written by Steve Masler, CEO of Fertility SOURCE Companies

Serono has launched a noteworthy project that is no doubt connected to the rapidly growing interest in egg freezing for all manners of conditions, not the least of which is freezing of donor eggs for later provision to recipients. ASRM 2008 was replete with scientific presentations and posters on various studies of the application of egg freezing. Judging from anecdotal comments heard at the conference, egg freezing will be a larger part of the repetoire of fertility practices in 2009 than it has ever been before. Serono's intended efforts at evaluation of the two techniques commonly used in egg freezing, "slow-cooling" and "vitrification" can be valuable but may be too little (400 women) and protracted over too long a period (three year recruitment period plus two year additional tracking period) to have large effects on its own. But, as a starter to encourage others to enter the fray, it is very timely.

Click on the link below to access the article mentioned above:
EMD Serono launches patient registry for egg freezing

Oocyte donation program using egg cryo-banking

Written by Steve Masler, CEO of Fertility SOURCE Companies

ASRM 2008 in San Francisco was like a coming out party for oocyte cryopreservation (egg freezing). It seems that many have become convinced via studies that egg freezing for various applications is now viable and that it not only is a more efficient method for egg donation (than fresh egg donation) but also a less costly one to the patient. Numerous scientific presentations and posters dealt with comparisons of vitrification and slow freezing as well as the application of egg freezing in general.

One poster was regarding a frozen egg bank of 61 donors that had been established by a single fertility practice. The same group will be publishing an article in Fertility & Sterility that will the results of a study comparing the use of frozen eggs from donors who had previously donated fresh eggs. The conclusion presented is "The present study demonstrates that oocyte cryopreservation can be considered as a tool to provide highly successful outcomes in an egg donor program. Our results validate the use of oocyte cryo-banking for egg donation purposes. In addition to the high success rates, oocyte cryo-banking can help to eliminate some of the obstacles associated with the current "fresh embryo" transfer policy. Oocyte cryo-banking will also dramatically reduce frozen embryo storage and mitigate related moral/ethical concerns, and may help with donor-recipient synchronization and possibly reduce cost."

Anecdotally, many fertility practitioners returned from ASRM believing that the time for large scale movement toward egg freezing for donor situations as well as for other applications has arrived.

Click on the link below to access the abstract for Fertility & Sterility article mentioned above:
Clinical evaluation of the efficiency of an oocyte donation program using egg cryo-banking

Key Points from Directions and Trends in Egg Freezing Symposium

Written by Steve Masler, CEO of Fertility SOURCE Companies

As a follow up to our last blog posting, our speakers identified key points from each of their presentations delivered at our New York symposium, Directions and Trends in Egg Freezing. As mentioned previously, the speaker's subjects were in regard to Legal, Ethical and Scientific/Medical issues in what is becoming a rapidly progressing technology aimed at making the egg donation process more efficient from a coordination and cost standpoint. Following are the speakers' key points:

Brent Barrett, PhD, HCLD, Scientific and Laboratory Director for Boston IVF, names: evolving technology, particularly in regard to vitrification (fast freeze); potential for FDA to become involved in oversight of egg freezing programs; growing identification of benefits to recipients from pursuing egg freezing processes.

Susan Crockin, JD, Crockin Law and Policy Group, names: issues created by the separation of the egg donation act from the receipt of eggs by the recipient patient; ultimate resolution of unique legal issues including control over frozen eggs, structure of payments, and recording and storing of information.

Fertility Source Companies intends to create a List-Serv for the purpose of further discussion about the above issues. Please note that if you are interested in subscribing to the List-Serv, please email fscmoderator@yahoo.com.

Infertility patients caught in the legal, moral and scientific embryo debate

Written by Steve Masler, CEO of Fertility SOURCE Companies

The Los Angeles Times of Monday, October 6 includes several articles about the dilemma facing the fertility world regarding its accumulation of about (at present) 500,000 frozen embryos. Though the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) permits fertility practices to discard abandoned embryos after five years of storage, no fertility practice has seen fit to implement such an unapproved (by the relevant IVF patient) destruction of embryos.

The articles go on to discuss adoption and research alternatives for frozen embryos. The articles indicate that though there is wide spread support for donation of embryos to research on the part of fertility patients, practical matters make such research donation difficult to achieve in most cases, and in many states.

The articles do not discuss another alternative approach to the frozen embryo dilemma. That is the fertilization of frozen eggs in lieu of using fresh eggs for IVF procedures. When eggs are frozen after being retrieved in an IVF procedure, only a select number need be fertilized with the rest retained in a frozen egg bank. Few, if any, people question that a frozen egg is in any way a potential person. Rather it is viewed as a gamete that is not complete toward forming a human. Ultimate destruction of excess frozen eggs, if any, is apt to be much more accepted than destruction of frozen embryos.

The technology of egg freezing has been dramatically improving in recent years as to its chances for successful pregnancies and births. As the technology improves even more, the emotional benefits of avoiding an excess of frozen embryos is apt to cause the procedure to become much more prevalent.

Click on the link below to see the recap of this article:
Infertility patients caught in the legal, moral and scientific embryo debate

Directions and Trends in Egg Freezing Symposium

Written by Steve Masler, CEO of Fertility SOURCE Companies

Fertility Source Companies sponsored and hosted a symposium in New York City on Directions and Trends in Egg Freezing. The program was arranged to present the legal, ethical and scientific/medical issues involved in what is becoming a rapidly progressing technology aimed at making the egg donation process more efficient from a coordination and cost standpoint.

Presenters were psychotherapist, Patricia Mendel, LCSW speaking on ethical issues; Susan L. Crockin, JD, speaking on legal issues; and Brent Barrett, Ph.D., H.C.L.D. speaking on scientific/medical issues.

The audience, largely comprised of physicians and their clinical staff from various fertility practices, was highly interactive with the speakers, engaging them in dialogue about cases they experienced in their own practices as well as directions for egg freezing in the fertility community at large.

Among the issues that were covered at the symposium were the following:

Legal Issues:
· Who owns the frozen donor eggs?
· Are the eggs bought and sold?
· What rights might the donor have over use of her eggs?
· Likelihood of prompting FDA quarantine (a la sperm banks)

Medical Issues:
· Vitrification (fast freeze) or slow freeze
· How many eggs in a batch?
· Success rates

Ethical Issues:
· Limits on donor compensation
· Reduction of frozen embryos (a plus)
· Experimental procedure
· Disposition of residual eggs (beyond batches)

Financial Issues:
· Donor compensation
· Pricing

Fertility SOURCE Companies would very much appreciate your thoughts and comments on any of the issues mentioned above. Hopefully, this will bring new light to many in the Third Party Reproduction field.

Fertility & Sterility article Researching Human Oocyte Cryopreservation Ethical Issues

Written by Steve Masler, CEO of Fertility SOURCE Companies

In their well written and thoughtful article, Drs. de Melo-Martin and Cholst point out many of the ethical dilemmas facing the fertility profession regarding performance of oocyte cryopreservation procedures in cases of cancer patients, fertility extension and egg donation.

Though this author agrees with the various ethical dilemmas (and resolutions proposed) identified in the article, I suggest consideration be given to one of presented ethical issues in an additional way.

In an attempt to define the categories of fertility patients who could ethically be included in a research protocol involving cryopreservation of oocytes, the authors name "Possibly women to whom it would be ethically appropriate to offer the option to participate in oocytye cryopreservation protocols [if they are] opposed to embryo cryopreservation."

Considering the above, I would suggest that the fertility profession itself has implicitly defined continuing additions to the already nationally large stock of cryopreserved embryos, many of which will never be implanted, as an ethical issue in its own right. Therefore, regardless of the views of individual patients, which many if not most of the time will not be explicitly clear on the point, the ethical dilemma of continued addition to the accumulation of frozen embryos should be sufficient to motivate the fertility profession to a more expansive view of eligible participants for oocyte cryopreservation protocols.

Click on the link below to access the abstract:
Researching Human Oocyte Cryopreservation Ethical Issues

Donor Egg: DNA Transfer

The following question was recently posed to us from Heather on Thursday, August 21, 2008:

Does anyone out there know anything about DNA transfer into a donor egg. i.e. I have read about oocyte use as a vehicle to carry DNA by withdrawing the donor's DNA and injecting the receiver's DNA. Any thoughts? Has anyone heard a doctor who does the relatively new procedure of DNA transfer through the use of a donor's egg? For example, withdrawing the donor's DNA and injecting the receiver's DNA so that the baby has the same DNA as it's parents-to-be.

We now have an answer to her question from a very prominent scientific researcher in the field of IVF, Dr. Jacques Cohen, Director of Reprogenetics and Tyho Galileo Research Laboratories.

The question is semantically describing a procedure that appears a substitute of cloning. The US government has curtailed such research and experimental work in a letter to all IVF clinics in 2001 which was publicized widely and accepted by the clinical community http://www.fda.gov/CBER/genetherapy/clone.htm. There is currently no evidence that the approach would be a good or safe alternative to standard IVF with gamete donation. Based on numerous publications from the animal science literature the offspring from such experiments may have a greater likelihood of anomalies compared to standard reproductive technology. Based on our understanding of the processes involved and the outcomes of animal experimentation, it is currently not recommended to pursue this avenue.

I hope this helps.

Guest Blogger: WonderWomb

Fertility SOURCE Companies is pleased to announce the newest addition to The SOURCE Forum blog, WonderWomb.

A three-time surrogate mother herself, WonderWomb is a highly dedicated and compassionate individual whose combined personal and professional experience uniquely qualify her to respond to your surrogacy questions and comments. With over twelve years of experience, she has assisted over two-hundred families realize their dreams of parenthood.

Please join us in welcoming WonderWomb to The SOURCE Forum family!

Surrogate Baby at Center of Legal Tussle

Written by Steve Masler, CEO of Fertility SOURCE Companies

Oprah may be willing to dedicate an entire one hour TV show to surrogacy in India and to actually give it at least her tacit blessing, but lets be realistic, how much money has to be saved by Intended Parents to make it worth the potential complications?

A Japanese couple got divorced in the midst of a surrogacy process in India. The genetic mother rejected the child. So, you think that the father got the child? Think again. According to Indian law, the father has to legally adopt the child. But, that process takes a long time. The child's grandmother (the father's mother) has temporary custody but her travel visa expires in three months and after that the child's future is uncertain. The story may ultimately have a happy ending, but even if it does, the stress and cost for the family must be enormous. The child's father is an Orthopedic Surgeon. Was he really making a wise move pursuing the surrogacy process in India?

In fact, the rise in the number of foreigners arriving in India to search for surrogate mothers has prompted the Indian authorities to consider strict regulations to protect the rights of surrogate mothers and children born to them.

As often is the case, buyer beware, but the potential morass would be Intended Parents are facing with Indian surrogacy cases may be beyond the pale.

Click on the link below to see the recap of this article:
Surrogate baby at centre of legal tussle

Baby Business Boom

Written by Steve Masler, CEO of Fertility SOURCE Companies

The following article takes a view that desire of young women to donate eggs is related to economic conditions. Baby Business Boom

The article is one of a genre that jumps on a recurrent theme about egg donation, i.e. the subject of incentives provided to young women to encourage them to donate eggs in return for fees for the donors' time, effort and suffering. No doubt, compensation is some degree of incentive for women to donate eggs. Further, the women who donate are undoubtedly young. However, the media bias appears to be towards painting the motivations as strictly monetary and toward suggesting that it is college age women who are doing the donating. The first assumption about the motivation being strictly monetary is far from accurate; the second assumption that donors are generally college aged is inaccurate.

Women who donate repeatedly indicate that though they appreciate the compensation, they would not be donating their eggs were it not for the additional satisfaction of helping someone create a life. Surely no professional is criticized for earning money while carrying out an occupation that they find rewarding and one that provides benefits to recipients. For example, what about physicians themselves, who are generally considered to be well rewarded economically and who usually get much satisfaction out of helping others in addition to enjoying the monetary benefits of their work?

Would-be moralists join the battle with the assumption that egg donors are ill informed regarding risks and concerns about egg donation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone writing a media article on the subject should go through the egg donation process with its multiple disclosures and consents provided to prospective egg donors. Additionally, prospective donors are exposed to countless relevant articles on the web. The assumption that donors are college age, naive young women is also groundless. College age women under the age of 21 are not acceptable as egg donors. Egg donors are generally between 21 and 29 years old and highly educated. Further, a large percentage of egg donations are by donors who have donated previously. It surely can't be said that repeat donors are not informed about egg donation.

There may be no political capital in saying good things about egg donation, but writers should try to write a balanced piece on the subject. 22,000 Intended Parents and egg donors in 2007 thought it was a good idea to give the process a try and if there are any horror stories emerging from those 22,000 cycles, I for one have not heard them.

American Attitudes Towards Surrogacy

Written by Steve Masler, CEO of Fertility SOURCE Companies

I recently read an article on surrogacy that discussed international attitudes toward the subject, particularly from the standpoint of the British, as viewed by Americans. The British, as it may be well known, are opposed to surrogacy, as are many other countries of the world. In the United States, attitudes are mixed, with some states effectively broadly permitting it and other states limiting it or outright prohibiting it. The article that I read expressed surprise that the British are almost schizophrenic in that they are so progressive toward reproductive research, yet against something as seemingly basic as surrogacy. Britain of course was the home of the first IVF baby, Louise K. Brown.

In looking at the British attitude toward surrogacy and even at those of the states in the US who are opposed, it would seem that the overriding theme is one of tradition, i.e. she who carries is called mother (mum in Britain). However, even to traditionalists, it seems to be backward thinking that says that she who can't carry a child to term must not therefore be able to develop an offspring of her own. It is pushing the point to an extreme to block a very traditional husband and wife from having children of their own.

Ironically enough, the foreign attitudes about surrogacy have not stopped the process among nationals of the various countries. Those individuals have simply bought themselves tickets for the United States, with its devalued dollar, and found fertility clinics and surrogates who are more than glad to help them become proud parents.

Tough Economy Tightens Surrogacy Market

Written by Steve Masler, CEO of Fertility SOURCE Companies

Oprah Winfrey recently featured surrogacy costs on an hour-long version of her highly popular TV program. During the program, Oprah introduced a couple pursuing surrogacy via a surrogate in India. She went on to explore the lives and situations of several surrogates in India and the surrogacy process.

Oprah was making the point that surrogacy costs of $70,000-$80,000 per case in the United States has driven many would-be parents needing surrogacy to search out lower cost alternatives. She stated a cost of $12,000 per case in India, seemingly including $6,000 for the surrogate (as compared to about $25,000+ for the surrogate in the United States).

Notwithstanding the considerable press that surrogacy in India has been receiving of late, including the above mentioned Oprah show, there are many questions that should be raised before Intended Parents go off to India in search of a low cost solution as follows:

• Can the Intended Parents afford the time and cost to spend extensive time in India, especially in potentially less than highly desirable conditions?


• There may very well be prospective health issues related to pursuit of a surrogate in India, as opposed to in the United States


• Can the legal issues be as clear-cut in India as in the United States regarding the all important matter of parentage and other related concerns?


• The Ob/Gyn system in India is not likely to be up to the standards of the United States regarding medical treatment of the surrogate during pregnancy and birth.


• There are likely to be some or perhaps extensive language issues in India, making it difficult to communicate among the parties involved.

In short, those who are serious about having a baby and who can find a way to afford it, are surely much better off pursuing one in the United States, particularly in the states friendly to surrogacy such as California, Texas and Florida. One should not sell short the obvious risks and perhaps some not so obvious risks in the pursuit of an Indian surrogacy alternative.

Please feel free to post your views on this important surrogacy issue.

Click on the link below to see the Oprah recap.
Tough Economy Tightens Surrogacy Market Reproductive Justice and Gender AlterNet

Welcome!

Welcome to The SOURCE Forum: An Egg Donation and Surrogacy blog! We're excited to launch our first official blog for The Donor SOURCE and the Surrogacy SOURCE at Fertility SOURCE Companies. This is the first of what will be many blog postings on this site.

Our intention is to provide relevant information regarding all things related to egg donation and surrogacy; and to provide some insight to those of you considering being an egg donor, or a surrogate, or considering the use of donor eggs or a gestational carrier. Our purpose is to pass along the latest and most pertinent information on subjects that relate to egg donation and surrogacy.

We hope this blog provides you with a deeper insight into 3rd party reproduction. We're very excited to be out here talking to you. We encourage you to post your thoughts and comments. Once again, welcome to the SOURCE Forum: An Egg Donation and Surrogacy blog. Enjoy!