The human female is born with about a million eggs and this number does not increase. With age, there is a dip in female fertility.

Egg donation or oocyte donation makes it possible for those women to get pregnant who cannot do so with their own eggs. Older women most often opt for this method of fertility treatment. Attempts to conceive with donor egg IVF have a high rate of success.

What Exactly is Donor Egg IVF?
Donor egg IVF is a fertility treatment or Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) in which the egg from a donor is subjected to IVF. That is, the egg from the donor is mixed with the sperm from the biological father in the laboratory. If embryos are produced, they are grown in a lab dish and then transferred to the recipient’s uterus. If this results in a pregnancy, the baby thus born will have genetic linkage to the donor of the egg.

Who Qualifies to Receive an Egg?
The criteria for women to qualify to receive eggs are:

• Early menopause
• Abnormal ovarian reserve
• Previous failures to conceive with IVF
• Very low egg quality
• Genetic disease
• Ovaries unresponsive to stimulation
• Over the age of 39

The Egg Donation Process
Couples sometimes choose a known donor. Else, it is an anonymous donor. The donor is screened for any diseases like HIV, chlamydia, hepatitis, toxicology testing and other diseases and also certain genetic predispositions. The donor is usually young, not more than 25 years of age, so that the quality of the eggs is high.

The recipient’s menstrual cycle is synchronized with the donor’s by giving the recipient some hormonal drugs. The male partner of the recipient provides a semen sample on the day eggs are retrieved from the donor. The semen and eggs are then fertilized through the in vitro fertilization process.

Embryo transfer is usually done three days after the eggs were retrieved. Ten days after the embryo transfer, the recipient goes through a blood test to check for pregnancy. (The transfer process involves a speculum which is inserted into the vagina to expose the cervix. The embryo/s is/are suspended in fluid and gently placed through a catheter into the womb. This process is done by monitoring it through ultrasound and is usually painless.)

Advantages of Donor Egg IVF
The advantages of donor egg IVF are simply its high chances of success. In fact, donor egg IVF has  a much higher success rate when compared to IVF with non-donor. It is the age of the egg that seems to matter more than the womb in which it is planted. By receiving the egg, the recipient replicates in her body the donor’s fertility condition.

Risks of Donor Egg IVF
The recipient stands the risk of contracting a transmittable disease. Though the donor is screened for HIV, such testing may not show anything if the donor has contracted HIV very recently.

Also, with donor egg IVF, there is the chance of multiple births if too many embryos are transferred. Twin births often happen in this method.

Donor Egg IVF in India
India has the advanced infrastructure and qualified fertility specialists required for donor egg IVF treatment. It’s the low cost of donor egg IVF in India that has made it a favorite with couples looking to have babies. India’s medical tourism industry is growing by leaps and bounds because of the quality medical care it offers at unbelievable prices.

Please do keep in mind that donor eggs available in India are only of Indian ethnicity. But people from overseas visiting India for surrogacy or egg donor IVF can always bring an egg donor with them from their country of origin.

Donor egg IVF in India has brought sunshine into the homes of many a childless couple. So go ahead and get some sunshine for yourself!

Related links:

• Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology
• India Surrogacy

Medical tourism in India is projected to grow by six times from US $350 million now to an over US $2 billion-industry in 2012. Hence, hospitals in India have a very bright future. India is the largest democracy in the world, is one of the fastest growing economies that is projected to more than double in the next five years.

India is one of the most attractive medical tourism bargains for someone in the West who is looking for high-end medical procedures or surgery overseas at a low cost. Some of the unique advantages that India provides for medical tourists from the West are:

Low cost of medical treatment: Prime Driver of Medical Tourism in India

• Private health care in India is comparable to much that is available at the best hospitals in the world and at a far lower cost. Even considering the cost of air travel and luxury hotel accommodation (if required), the cost savings comes out to be 40-80% of what is in the USA.

Experienced and talented pool of Medical Professionals

• With a long history of subsidized medical education and high investments in medical research, India has one of the biggest pool of medical professionals and scientists in the world.
• Many Indian doctors have learned their trade and practised it in the US and UK.
• Due to the sheer volume of patients and less bureaucratic delays in acceptance of new medical procedures, surgeons have more experience in some of the new medical techniques. For example, hip resurfacing surgery was introduced in USA by the FDA in 2006, whereas it had already been in practice in India for many years then.

Strong Private Hospital Infrastructure

• India has one of the biggest private hospitals in the world. Many of them are affiliated with top world medical institutes like Harvard Medical and John Hopkins. A number of these hospitals are also accredited by JCI, USA, or ISO. These medical centers have the infrastructure, experience and the setup for quality conscious medical tourism patients from the West.

English is widely spoken

• It’s the medium of most public conversations and the preferred language of communication in hospitals and medical centers.
• English is also the medium of instruction in schools and professional training.

A Government that is favorable to medical tourism

• Indian government has a special visa for medical tourists that allows them to stay for long periods in the country. Also, the government has an investment of US $6.5 billion in the pipeline for medical tourism. This is for setting up affordable hospitals in India and budget hotels for patient’s relatives.

Experience in Medical Tourism

• Medical tourists from South Asia and Middle East have been coming for medical treatment to India for many years now. Also, Medical tourism from UK to India has become quite common. It’s only Medical Tourism from North America (USA, Canada) to India that is a relatively new phenomenon.

Medical decisions by Doctors, not by rules made by Non-Medicos

• Unlike many countries, doctors have most of the say in medical treatment in India, unlike many countries where doctors are afraid that what they say or do might be used against them in a law suit.

Familiarity of Western Patients with Indian Doctors

• Many Western patients have had previous experience with Indian doctors.
• One in 20 physicians in the USA is from India; a large number of Indian physicians practice in the UK, too.

To summarize it, the future of Medical Tourism in India is very bright. In the next few years, Hospitals in India are going to expand and new hospitals will open.

Medical Tourism Corporation facilitates medical treatment to top Hospitals in India. Request a quote using the form on this page for more information.