Oocyte donation: a review

Abstract

Summary. Oocyte donation provides an option for achieving pregnancy in women lacking functioning gonads, or in whom IVF techniques have failed to harvest adequate oocytes, or those who do not wish to use their own gametes because of hereditary disease. In agonadal women, artificial menstrual cycles are required before proceeding to gamete donation. A fixed cyclical steroid replacement schedule of oestradiol (E2) valerate and progesterone (P4) pessaries was initially used, but the need for synchrony between donor and recipient cycles, and the narrow window for implantation limited the transfer of fresh embryos. Donorrecipient cycle asynchrony can be overcome by using frozen‐thawed embryos, or..