Egg donor selection at Instituto Bernabeu: details that makes it unique
The generosity of a woman who donates her eggs anonymously allows another woman to achieve her goal of being a mother when she cannot achieve it with her own gametes. We take this vital process with the rigor it deserves. That is why we are an international reference in egg donation. And to obtain the best results we apply the highest quality parameters.
After the exhaustive controls carried out, only 22% of the egg’s donors candidates joined the program as egg donors.
Most suitable donor selection
Instituto Bernabeu is one of the pioneering clinics in Europe with the launch of its egg donor program in 1992. But we are not only characterized by our excellent results, which are periodically audited by external companies. The strict selection of candidates is valued.
Step by step
- Age is key to fertility, so our candidates must be between 18 and 32 years old, the average being 23.1 years.
- Medical, psychological, gynaecological and genetic controls. In this phase there’s an important screening and more than half of the candidates are finally not admitted to the donor program because they do not meet the quality required in the demanding controls carried out:
- Psychological evaluation performed by a clinical psychologist specializing in fertility.
- Medical and family history carried out by a gynaecologist expert in fertility to assess all the medical history that could influence.
- Chromosomal and genetic studies with which we rule out the most common hereditary diseases.
- Complete blood analysis and serology for syphilis, hepatitis, HIV and coagulation tests.
- Study of cytomegalovirus, cystic fibrosis, Fragile X and AlphaThalassemia.
- Screening of the 10 most common sexually transmitted diseases.
- Many of the tests carried out are not required by law. Our maxim of always reaching the highest levels of quality oblige us. Our goal is to ensure suitability and the highest standards for the future family.
- As internal protocol, we perform a COVID-19 immunity test on all donors prior to their donation.
- Genetic analysis of recessive diseases (GCT), without added costs, which allows us to identify, according to the modality, more than 600 or 3,000 serious genetic diseases.
A minimum of 8 high-quality eggs is guaranteed and an average per cycle of 11. If for any reason the number of eggs obtained is less or a fertilization failure occurs, a new egg donor will be procured.
We seek the maximum physical resemblance of the egg donor with the recipient mother, for this we have specific personnel dedicated exclusively to ensuring all the details. Thanks to our powerful egg donation program we have hundreds of phenotypic characteristics that are classified by race, complexion, height, weight, skin colour, eyes, hair colour and type, RH, facial features, etc.
Mainly fresh eggs are used. 78.2% of the treatments are carried out fresh (being 100% at our clinic in Alicante).
- Blastocyst stage. 99% of transfers are made on day 5 or 6, in the blastocyst stage. At the same time, our laboratory high quality translates into high-quality embryos.
- Transfer of a single embryo. The high quality of the processes allows transferring a single embryo, to avoid multiple pregnancies which are risky.
Biobank for our donors DNA conservation for 20 years. This allows any future genetic study necessary for the treatment of possible diseases, with the prior consent of the egg donor.