How Using an Egg Donor Can Increase Your Success Rate?

In this article, we outline the main reasons for egg donation, explore the statistics we have available, and explain why using an egg donor can be such a powerful prospect. 

Who is egg donation suitable for?

There are many reasons why an individual or couple may opt for egg donation as a fertility treatment. Some of the most common ones include: 

• Premature menopause: conditions like premature ovarian failure (POF) and primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) can cause early or premature menopause in women, which makes it very difficult to conceive without help.

• Unexplained infertility: some individuals have unsuccessfully tried to start a family for many years, despite there being no clear medical reason.

• Unsuccessful IVF cycles: after multiple failed IVF cycles, a doctor may recommend egg donation to increase chances of success.

• Surrogacy: gay couples, single males, transgender women and women experiencing recurrent miscarriage may explore surrogacy with an egg donor as the path to start a family.

• Genetic disorders: some women are fertile and able to produce eggs, but carry serious genetic diseases. Using donated eggs can mean avoiding passing conditions on to a child.

The decision to use donor eggs can be a difficult one, often after a very long fertility journey. Many are told by their doctor – sometimes following the great physical, emotional and financial toll of multiple failed IVF cycles with their own eggs – that using donor eggs is the best or only avenue left for conception. Receiving this news can be very difficult to process; seeking support, community or counselling can be really helpful during this tough time. 

Egg donation is a big decision. Regardless of where you are in your journey, it’s important to take as much as you need to feel confident before making any decisions. 

Is IVF with donor eggs more successful?

IVF with donor eggs is a highly successful treatment that has helped countless individuals and couples realise their dreams of parenthood.

The success rates for IVF with donor eggs are generally higher compared to IVF using own eggs, especially for those over 35 or with diminished ovarian reserve. While success rates can vary based on several factors such as the age and health of the egg donor, the quality of the sperm, and the reproductive health of the recipient, the overall success rate for donor egg IVF is impressively high. With Apricity, donor egg IVF live birth rates exceed 40%, regardless of age, compared to the average birth rate of 22% from own egg fresh embryo transfers.

What are the success rates for egg donation?

The HFEA offers data on egg donation success rates by age. It’s important to note that these are general and do not take into account several key factors that affect success, such as the age of the egg donor and the health of the recipient or surrogate. 

An HFEA paper published based on cycles in 2018 showed that in every age group, using IVF with donor eggs over IVF with own eggs increases your rate of success. 

Donor egg success rates by age

Source data: HFEA (Trends in egg, sperm and embryo donation 2020).

We can derive several key insights from this data:

• Generally speaking, success rates for donor egg IVF are comparable to success rates for own egg IVF for women under 35.

• Egg donation success rates for women over 40 years old more than double the chances of a live birth (4-12% success rate with own eggs, vs. 30-34% with donor eggs).

• When a woman is 43 or older, the chances of IVF success with donor eggs are over 7 times higher than when using own eggs.

Data source: HFEA. Graph compiled by the Apricity AI team.

Donor egg IVF success rates by stage

Egg donation statistics also offer insight into success rates at each stage of the donor egg IVF process. For example, the chance of a fertilised donor egg properly developing into an embryo is about 80% whereas with own eggs, only 30 to 50% of fertilised eggs make it to the blastocyst stage.

The chance of donor egg embryos implanting successfully in the uterus is about 75-85%. In contrast, implantation rates using own eggs varies significantly across age groups. The average embryo implantation rate for those under 35 is 37%, for 38–40-year-olds it is 18% and for those over 44, it is 2.2%.

Overall, the likelihood of a clinical pregnancy through donor egg IVF lies at between 50 and 75% compared to own egg IVF, which is 41% for people aged 18-34 and 6% for people aged 43-50.

Donor egg first time success rates

If you are wondering whether donor eggs can work first time, the answer is yes! Donor egg IVF is successful in up to 59% of cases after one cycle. However, you may likely need more than one cycle for a successful pregnancy. The chance of pregnancy after a second IVF donor egg cycle is 65% and after a third cycle is 89%.

These success rates are higher than those of IVF using their own eggs. For example, for people under 30, the chance of a live birth after one IVF cycle is 43%, after two cycles is 59% and after three cycles is 66%.

Why is egg donation so much more successful in older women?

Age is a key factor in women’s fertility, due to the impact age has on egg quality. As a woman goes through her thirties, the quality and quantity of her eggs decrease, making natural pregnancy more difficult. 

Anonymous egg donors must be under 36, healthy, and without a history of genetic conditions. Women who donate eggs also undergo fertility screening to ensure the highest possible chances of success for recipients. The result is that people who use donated eggs benefit from younger, higher quality eggs, which are linked to much higher rates of success.

Predict your fertility

When reviewing egg donation success rates, it’s important to remember that they don’t usually show why egg donation was needed in the first place. A recipient’s age and health are important factors, as well as fertility history. 

Apricity’s AI team has been developing tools to help increase transparency in fertility care for a number of years. You may find it beneficial to plug in your information in one of our Fertility Predictors to get an overview of how successful egg donation has been for people with profiles similar to yours. 

Try our Fertility Predictor

Our Fertility Predictors are not a substitute for a medical assessment with a doctor. Instead, they’re a way to understand a huge amount of data (nearly half a million recorded HFEA cycles) in a simple way. 

Talk to the UK’s leading egg donation experts

If you’re interested in exploring egg donation, get in touch via our live chat or by calling us on 07897 035438. We’re proud to be one of the UK’s leading fertility clinics in egg donation, with an 86% cumulative pregnancy rate, deep expertise, and streamlined support that puts you at the centre of every decision.  

From supporting you with how to select donor eggs for IVF, finding your perfect egg donor, and managing your clinical treatment, our egg donation specialists are there at every step of your journey. We have a wealth of resources to help you explore egg donation from different angles, and offer powerful community support through our friend and longtime collaborator, Becky Kearns (of DefiningMum and PathsToParentHub). 

Ready to learn more?

• Get in touch 

• Apricity on YouTube, where we have many egg donation webinars

• Kelley's story: becoming Mum to Archie

• Fertility options for same-sex, gay couples