A new study found that the number of women using donor eggs to get pregnant is increasing. Egg donations used for procedures increased from 10,801 in 2000 to 18,306 by 2010.
Having younger egg donors results to healthier babies compared to procedures that use the same eggs that the woman has.
Researchers from the Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta led by Jennifer Kawwass, a fellow in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the university, examined the data from the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected from 443 fertility clinics, about 93 percent, in the U.S.
Their analysis revealed that in 2010, almost 25 percent of women who attempted to get pregnant using donor eggs gave birth to a healthy baby. The doctors termed this as the optimum result with the baby being born with weighing no less than 5.5 lbs, after 37 weeks in the womb. This percentage of ideal scenario had improved from 2000 by 18.5 percent.
The studies between 2000 and 2010 had similar average age for the analysis: egg donors were 28 years old and egg recipients were around 41 years of age.
"There's still room for improvement," but the trends are encouraging for couples increasingly looking for ways to extend child-bearing years, “ Kawwass told USA Today.
Using donor eggs is more pronounced for women over 35 years old, who begin to have difficulty to reproduce because of shrinking egg supply. The study however found that majority of fertility procedures are done using the traditional IVF or invitro fertilization operation, where women still use their own eggs but are injected with their partners’ sperm or a donor’s. In 2010, IVF procedures account for 89 percent of fertility operations.
This study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and was also presented at the annual conference of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the International Federation of Fertility Societies.
