For patient(s) who need to use an egg donor to create or expand their family, medical scrutiny is performed on the chosen egg donor before she can proceed with the IVF cycle.

The medical screening of egg donors is an important process. Here at the PFC Egg Donor Agency, we proceed with an extensive screening process PRIOR to allowing the egg donor to become eligible for choosing by the intended parent(s). This extensive screening is performed to help determine and identify any medical factors which may disqualify the donor, or to identify information which may require additional testing prior to determining donor eligibility. At PFC, our philosophy is that we want to identify any issues prior to intended parents choosing the donor, so that the risk of identifying medical issues with the donor after the start of the IVF cycle is minimized, and the risk of canceling the cycle is much reduced.

Medical screening for the donor includes an extensive review of her personal and family medical history, physical exam and pelvic ultrasound, psychological evaluation (in-person visit with our MFT Peggy Orlin),

standardized personality assessment (PAI), and blood testing including ethnic appropriate genetic testing.

The PFC Egg Donor Agency complies with current recommendations by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), and the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG). The donor identifies her ethnic background, and based on this information, appropriate testing is performed (see article by Lauri Black, Genetic Counselor, outlining current recommendations). This testing is done and results reviewed prior to approving the egg donor as eligible to be in the donor database. If the donor is a carrier for a genetic mutation, this may disqualify her from being an egg donor; some genetic mutations may not be disqualifying, but the sperm source may need to be screened for that mutation, prior to deciding to choose that egg donor. These tested mutations are for recessive disorders, so an embryo would only be at risk of having the disorder if BOTH the egg and sperm source were carriers for the identified mutation (see above noted article).

It is important to understand that new genetic mutations are identified almost every day; so recommendations for ethnic-based testing do potentially change year by year. While many genetic mutations have been identified on the human genome, many of these are very rare, and only mutations that are more frequently seen within one’s ethnic group are those that are recommended to be tested for. It is not appropriate, nor feasible, to check for all known possible mutations. The PFC Egg Donor Agency is kept apprised of current recommendation by our affiliated genetic counselors, so that our list of genetic screening tests may change over time. Rest assured that we keep informed of these changes, and comply with up-to-date recommendations.

While all this testing may seem cumbersome, it is to help assure that once you choose your egg donor, we can proceed with the IVF cycle with minimal risk of a cancellation, and start you on your way to achieve your dream of a healthy family.

Tags: Egg Donation, Genetic Testing

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 6:31 pm and is filed under Ask The Experts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.