What happens to the eggs once they are retrieved?
Once the eggs are retrieved, they are “cleaned”, inspected and placed in a petri dish where they will be fertilized with the husband’s sperm. There, they will grow and develop into embryos. Three or five days later, several of the embryos will be placed into the uterus of the woman you are donating to. While you are taking your medications, she will have also been taking hormones (estrogen and progesterone) to prepare her uterus for a possible pregnancy. She will receive her first pregnancy test approximately 2 weeks after the embryos have been implanted. Any embryos that were not placed in her uterus will be frozen so that the recipient couple may have several attempts at getting pregnant. If a couple is lucky enough to get pregnant on their first try, they will often attempt to try again in another year or two to conceive a second child. There is a high probability that your couple will become pregnant as success rates with donor eggs is now approximately 80%.
