Prior to Egg Donation, What Testing or Evaluation Should I Have?

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0:00:00.000,0:00:05.000 (text on screen): Ask the Expert 0:00:05.000,0:00:07.000 Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source 0:00:07.000,0:00:10.000 Prior to egg donation, what testing or evaluation should I have? 0:00:10.000,0:00:15.000 R. Ian Hardy, MD, PhD, Fertility Centers of New England: Many patients who are at the level of doing donor egg have had many procedures prior to this: 0:00:15.000,0:00:22.000 many interventions to the uterus, many catheters being passed, many IUIs, many embryo transfers. 0:00:22.000,0:00:30.000 And in some cases, that has induced yet a new problem to this patient: chronic inflammation or chronic endometritis. 0:00:30.000,0:00:39.000 To go through all the rigors and efforts of a donor egg only to implant it into an abnormal uterus is going to begat, yet again, disappointment. 0:00:39.000,0:00:46.000 So it’s very important, once the decision is made and once there’s comfort in making the decision of donor egg, 0:00:46.000,0:00:53.000 that there is a very thorough evaluation of the other components, the uterus certainly being one of them. 0:00:53.000,0:01:00.000 A patient who may have had a fibroid two years ago, that was deemed not significant two years ago, may have grown. 0:01:00.000,0:01:05.000 And patients that, “No, I’m told it was fine,” but that was two years ago and things can change. 0:01:05.000,0:01:11.000 It’s very important that you don’t have tunnel vision and say it’s all about the egg, you’re old, you’ve got a high FSH. 0:01:11.000,0:01:21.000 You can’t make a patient younger. You can remedy the uterus. You can fix chronic endometritis. You can fix fibroids. You can fix polyps. 0:01:21.000,0:01:31.000 The other part of this is, of course, the partner. And these patients who have undergone numerous failed IVF cycles then take the leap to egg donor. 0:01:31.000,0:01:38.000 Often, the husband or the partner, the sperm is the common denominator in both of those cycles. 0:01:38.000,0:01:47.000 And, again, to have an inordinate focus on the egg donor without refocusing on what’s going on with the other components, 0:01:47.000,0:01:52.000 including the sperm, you may overlook something that would, again, begat disappointment. 0:01:52.000,0:01:56.000 (text on screen): Ask the Expert 0:01:56.000,0:01:58.000 Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source