Why does egg donation fail? Reasons for unsuccessful IVF

Hi there,

my journey to conception has been so hard, and still counting 🙁 I’ve been through 3 insemination cycles and 2 IVF cycles with own eggs. Now I’m facing IVF this time with donor eggs but I’m scared, terrified actually. What if this time it also FAILS? Even though experts keep on telling me that with donor eggs, success rates are way higher, I’m afraid it’s going to fail once again.

What can make an IVF treatment fail? Why?

Cheers,

Florence

Dear Florence,

While it is true that egg donation success rates are higher because donor eggs are of optimal quality, pregnancy might not be achieved anyway after a donor-egg IVF cycle. It may be due to a series of problems that can lead to IVF failure, or to a pregnancy that cannot be carried to term, which would lead to miscarriage.

Genetic abnormalities can appear while the embryo is growing that can lead to embryo arrest at any stage of its development. Uterine alterations are also likely to happen during pregnancy, which may hinder embryo development and therefore lead the woman to miscarriage. Implantation failure is also another possibility: in this case, even though high-quality embryos are used, implantation never happens due to endometrial receptivity issues.

Bearing this in mind, we can conclude that many factors have an influence on the journey toward pregnancy. Besides, attention should not only be paid to the egg, but also to sperm, embryo quality, and the uterine cavity where it has to implant and develop after all.

By that I mean that, despite paying attention to the eggs is crucial, there exist many other factors that should be taken into account, because they may be the reason why you are unable to make your dream of being a mother come true.

Read more:

Using donor eggs to get pregnant
Donor-egg IVF: protocol, success rates and cost

Hope this helps,

Regards