Hello there! I am the mother of 18 month old b/g twins via egg donation. I was diagnosed with Premature Ovarian Failure at age 27 and was told my only option was adoption or IVF via egg donation.

Although I never tried IVF using my own eggs, I have had the experience as the recipient. You will need to take the Lupron shots to prevent you from ovulating early and to get your cycle in sync with your donor's cycle.

After the embryo transfer, you will be on progesterone shots for about the first 10 weeks of the pregnancy. Aside from taking birth control pills in the beginning, the Lupron and Progesterone, I don't recall taking any other medications. The donor's list of meds that we paid for, on the other hand, was quite a bit longer.

Good luck with your future IVF! It was a difficult decision for us to decide to use donor eggs, but it was worth every painful shot and penny we spent! Those kids are my life! There is a support group on this site for IVF with Donor Eggs where you will find many other women considering, currently in the process, or have already been through it. If you haven't joined, I would highly recommend it.

Feel free to friend me and I am more than happy to answer any more questions you may have.

My DD is from a DE IVF cycle. I also did 4 prior IVF cycles with my own eggs. The difference is you don't have to take the stim meds as a recipient. As Kris said you take, BCPs, Lupron, and progesterone. I also took estrogen injections along with the progesterone. My RE had me take a baby aspirin in addition to everything else.

This is super interesting. Does anyone have biological children and children through DE? I am wondering how that is both for you and the children?

Kelly,
In answer to your question. There are some ladies on this site who have their own genetic children and then a DE child. They have written about this on the IVF with Donor Eggs or Donor Embryo group.

All I wish to add to all the above, which btw is exactly what I went thru for my DE IVF cycle, is that I think the toughest part of donor egg is just that, accepting that you must use somebody else's eggs to get pregnant. It's a tough cookie to swallow but oh, so very rewarding. I'm 46 and a mommy to 2 1/2 y/o b/g twins and thank God and our donor every day for this wonderful gift! Good luck!

In response to Kelley's question. I do have a 6 year old son who was conceived naturally. He was a complete surprise. My twins are from donor eggs but I don't feel any differently toward them as I do from my son who came from my own egg. I was concerned during my pregnancy with the twins if I would feel differently toward them than my oldest, but those feelings faded immediately after I gave birth and saw those beautiful babies for the first time. It was love at first sight!

Once our twins turned a year old, we actually found out that we were miraculously pregnant! My fourth child is due is 6 weeks so I will have 2 children with my own eggs and 2 children via egg donation. I love each of my children equally, there is absolutely no difference. They are too young to understand the situation so I can only share my own experience for now.

Thanks for your comments!

Hello Everyone Im 36 years old and have had mt tubs removed and surgeries on both of my ovaries because I have two large cyst. I have already done 2 IVF cycles and no mature egg were found I have been so upset I cant find my self to get out of bed and be postive in life. We are trying to get a loan so we can try again but with a egg donor can anyone give me any advice please HELP.

Kelly - One quick thing to add. A child conceived through DE IS a biological child since that child was literally made with materials from the a DE Mom's body. The difference is genetics. So to be clear, a DE child is 100% a biological child, just not a genetic one.

My RE compared it to building a house....the Egg donor provides the blueprints, but the biological mother provides the wood, nails, glue, etc.

I became pregnant with donor eggs after 3 failed IVFs. Unfortunately, I miscarried in the second trimester, but we will try again because we have frozen embryos left. When I was pregnant with my little one, I always felt like she was mine. She was growing inside me. I didn't care if she had my genes.

We did a frozen egg donation, which is now the future of donor egg cycles. It's much cheaper and less stressful than finding a donor, synching cycles, and doing a fresh cycle. All you do is pay the fee, sign and notarize documents, and the eggs are shipped to your fertility clinic. You have to find a clinic that offers this service. Then you decide when you want to do the embryo transfer and about a few weeks before, you take progesterone, estrogen and/or other meds to prepare your body. Then you do the transfer.

By the way, there is an IVF with donor egg group here on DS. Here is the link : http://www.dailystrength.org/groups/eggdonorivf

I have a 13 month old daughter that was from a donor egg. We tried multiple times with my own eggs before finally going on to donor egg. The hardest part for me was accepting that I had to use someone else's eggs. Once you get past that part, it gets much easier. I could not imagine my little girl being anything other than who she is! My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner.

For those of you wondering if you can feel the same about a child that is from donor eggs vs. one conceived with your eggs, I will be completely honest. I have 2 other children conceived naturally from a prior marriage. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I worried that I wouldn't feel the same as I do my genetic children. I couldn't have been more wrong!!! She is my world! I could not imagine life without her! Rarely, do I even think that she was from a donor egg. She grew in my body, I gave her life. Our bond is very strong.

For those of you who want to experience pregnancy, but are unable to use your own eggs for whatever reason, I say go for it! In the end you will not regret it! You will be that child's mother, no one else!

And yes, the donor egg group on DS is great! Lots of wonderful women on that site.

I am in my 4th round of IVF using Donor Eggs and Donor Sperm. We found out between year 5-7 that we could not have a baby the way we always thought we would. In our case the issue is with both me and my husband (poor egg quality and no sperm).

Agree with what someone else posted, the biggest pill to swallow is to let go of the dream that you will have a child like your other friends do. But I dont regret this decison for one second. We are still on our journey but I am not giving up yet on the dream of being a mother. Recognize that your journey will not look like others, but you will never know what your journey will look like unless you try.

Stay hopeful.

There are also donor embryos, other people who do IVF and are fortunate enough to have many frozen embryos left over.
A woman I met at my RE's office got over 30 embryos (and somehow didn't burst her ovaries), although I don't know if they kept, donated or are still considering their options.

Snowflake adoption, is that the term?

Yes its called embryo adoption and something DH and I will most likely make our next step. Here is the link: http://www.nightlight.org/snowflake-embryo-adoption/
It is one of many agencies to consider. They seem to be the most expensive and most experienced/popular.