Are There Egg Banks For Infertility Patients?

Not frequently asked, but still it's a question that may become more commonly heard in fertility clinics:

Are there egg banks, similar to sperm banks, that we can use to select donors for our IVF?

Sonja Kristiansen, Medical Director of Houston Fertility Center responds:


Sperm banks have been around for decades now. The existence of these third-party reproductive agencies has made accessing male gametes very convenient for fertility patients. So far, the idea of egg banks is still too new for the same circumstance to be the case. That's because the development of egg freezing technology has been more challenging than sperm cryopreservation.

But egg cryo has come a very long way in the last few years. In fact, I recently blogged about a study that showed pregnancy results were nearly the same regardless of whether fertility patients used fresh or frozen donor eggs. Besides being good news for patients, another possible outcome from this study's conclusions is the growth of egg banking.

What's so good about egg banking? The availability of frozen eggs will likely result in less expensive IVF procedures for many patients.

For now, the primary way to go about it, if you need to use a donor's eggs to conceive, is to use your fertility specialist's connections either directly to egg donors or to agencies that specialize in egg donor screening and selection. It seems a little more cumbersome than using an egg bank, but it's the standard until more growth in those services is seen.

~ Sonja Kristiansen, MD

How Many IVF's Does It Take?

Here's an FAQ that a lot of fertility specialists hear:

How many IVF's will I have to go through before I have a baby?

Sonja Kristiansen, Medical Director of Houston Fertility Center responds:

Virtually nobody wants to resort to fertility treatment to have a baby! But if you find yourself in my office, you've likely already come to the conclusion that this is where you need to be to achieve your dream.

So your next question -- "How much of this fertility treatment do I have to endure?!" -- is understandable.

We cannot tell any patient at her first consultation exactly how many fertility treatment cycles she'll go through before she has a baby. In fact, we may not even be able to tell a brand-new patient if IVF is the final answer for her.

I just wrote a blogpost about the success rates (and risks) of IVF, and how success seems to come more often to women who manage to go through the procedure three times or more.

I know, it's not what you want to hear, especially at your first appointment. But remember -- those are statistics, which are mathematical versions of everyday life. Just because statistically your chances of a baby are greater with three or more IVF's, that's not necessarily a fact of life for you and your situation.

Everyone's body and medical history is different. Your causes of infertility, how your body responds to medications... many factors add up to fertility with or without treatment. So while I may not be able to answer the question of "How many IVF's" here on the Internet in a way that will be meaningful to any individual, I can certainly focus in on a good estimate once you and I have run a few diagnostic tests and gone over your personal health history.

~ Sonja Kristiansen, MD