Lesbian IVF: compatibility, pregnancy and concerns about the sperm donor

Hello,

This is Lily & Megan, we are a same-sex couple willing to undergo lesbian IVF to become mothers 🙂 We’ve heard that not all oocytes are compatible with every woman in the world, I mean, that perhaps the eggs from my partner are incompatible with my body. Is this true?

We are both 27 years old, BTW. Which one is the most indicated to bear the pregnancy? And also we are concerned about the man who is going to be our donor, mainly about his ethnicity and physical appearance. We are both blonde, and of course we’d love our baby to take after us, or at least one of us. Could we choose our donor? We wouldn’t mind it if he’s a a known donor.

Thanks,

Regards

Hello Lily & Megan,

Lesbian IVF, also known as PAiR method, reciprocal IVF, or partner assisted reproduction, is an assisted reproduction technique in which one woman hands her eggs over to the other woman. Partner IVF works, as its name itself suggests, as the common IVF process with donor sperm. Thus, once fertilized, the embryos will be transferred to the second woman. This way both partners are involved in the journey to pregnancy.

In your particular cae, the most common is starting with fertility test to check the ovarian reserve of you both. The woman presenting the best ovarian reserve is the most indicated to donate her eggs to the other one, since it means that her eggs preset higher egg quality. The other one, conversely, will be the one carrying the pregnancy. As for incompatibility between eggs, there should be no problem as long as there exists no immunological pathology.

Regarding the sperm donor, the possibility of choosing his identity depends on the country where you undergo lesbian IVF. For example, if you are in the US, you won’t have problems doing it, since there you can choose between known, semi-known, or anonymous sperm donation. You can find further info about it in the following post: Sperm donation in the USA.

Hope this helps,

Regards