Egg donation: amenorrhea, + other concerns

March 24, 2008 1:42 PM

Egg Donation Questions. Are there higher risks of side-effects for an egg donor with a history of secondary amenorrhea?

My close friend is considering becoming an egg donor (with this egg donation company).
A few years ago, she had secondary amenorrhea, spanning about 2 years or more. This was due to a hormonal imbalance, as diagnosed by a doctor. During that time, she was advised to undergo hormone treatments for her amenorrhea. She did not do so, and her period eventually returned (by itself), a bit more than a year ago.

Currently, she says that the egg donation procedure is one of the most straightforward procedures you can come across: that the drugs/hormones administered to the donor during the egg donation process are the kinds produced naturally by the body, and that any possible side effects are minimal. She also says that since she rarely experiences period-related discomfort (e.g. cramps) during her period, she expects she will be scarcely affected by the hormones administered during the egg donation process. She likens it to what pregnant mothers go through when they are working with their gynaecologist and monitoring hormone levels. She maintains that donors are unaffected by the process; that her fertility will be unaffected.

My friend is young (early twenties, in college), unmarried, has no children, and has never been sexually active.

She has been informed that she is a top candidate, that her qualifications and ethnicity especially place her in high demand as an egg donor. At this point, she seems very keen and sure about going ahead with egg donation, although she has been asking friends for their opinions.


- Does her history of secondary amenorrhea increase her risks of any side-effects she may experience during the egg donation process? Will it affect the way she responds to the drugs/hormones involved?

- Is the egg donation process as straightforward as my friend currently understands it to be? Are the risks and complications that minimal?

- If anyone has heard of The Donor Source, or had any personal experience with them - are they reliable, and what is the extent to which they look out for the welfare and concerns of the donor?

- Should she seek out a secondary opinion/consultation from an external gynaecologist that isn't affiliated with the egg donation company? Likewise, should she seek out a non-affiliated attorney? From what I understand, The Donor Source will be providing her with a gynaecologist, as well as a phone consultation with an attorney to go over her rights and obligations. Will this be sufficient, or may there be a conflict of interest?

Please email [e-mail] if you have further questions or want to communicate privately.

Thank you so much, in advance, for your input.

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (5 comments total)

Previously
posted by arnicae at 2:31 PM on March 24, 2008

IANAD... but it is definitely not as simple as that. For example, there's the risk of hyperovarian stimulation syndrome, which can, rarely, be fatal. The long term risks are not really well understood.

This New York state donor guideline looks helpful.

Also, the hormones make many people's moods nutty-- like extreme PMS. People's responses are wildly variable-- from nothing at all to depression, etc.
posted by Maias at 2:41 PM on March 24, 2008

I'm surprised that she's under the impression that the side effects of the hormones are minimal. In the sense of long term health related side effects, sure, they're aren't many. In terms of how they make you feel when you're actually taking them, my understand is that they can make you totally batshit miserable. Of course, as with all things hormonal, there's a huge range of reactions that an individual body can have. I read a couple of infertility blogs, and the general consensus is that they're pretty wretched.

I was on Lupron for a while for my endometriosis. It basically shuts down your ovaries, and is often a part of the process for egg donation; they shut them down so they can subsequently hyperstimulate them and get a whole bushel of eggs. Lupron was a truly miserable, honestly torturous experience for me. I can't imagine describing the roller coaster of misery it put me through as minimal at all.
posted by mostlymartha at 3:24 PM on March 24, 2008

I went through an egg donation a few years ago. I experienced near hyperovarian stimulation, which was very painful, and could have been dangerous had it not been caught in time. Some after effects that I experienced (which may or may not have been due to the hormones--including the instant drop-off--, but I am inclined to think they were) severe depression, weight gain, irregular periods, my first ever!!! abnormal Pap. I understand why people want to do egg donations, but I will always advise against it, especially since they make you sign wavers that you won't sue them for any side effects (including future infertility) of egg donation.
posted by nikksioux at 4:21 PM on March 24, 2008

Uh, that sounds like a load of bull.

I haven't done egg donation, but I am pregnant thanks to IVF, and the procedures for egg donation and IVF are identical except for the whole putting-a-fertilized-embryo-back thing. Some notes:

1. During a normal cycle for me, my body would release 1 egg. During my IVF cycle, my body prepared 23 eggs. My ovaries were huge -- their enlargement was visible on an ultrasound more than three months after the retrieval, and I now have a small cyst on one ovary. Right around retrieval time, I could barely wear any of my pants. If your friend is considered a good candidate, she should be prepared to have massively swollen ovaries and possibly risk ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. That's because she's likely to make a lot of eggs, and the more eggs, the bigger your ovaries.
2. The hormones used in IVF might be produced by your body, but not in those doses. Hello? Your body does not naturally release 23 eggs simultaneously. You know all those sextuplets in the news? Mother Nature didn't make those; the pharmaceutical industry did.
3. The egg retrieval process is like a minor surgery, particularly if you have many eggs retrieved, as your friend is likely to do. Each time they get an egg, they're going to punch a hole in her vaginal wall. Good times! She's likely to be sore and crampy for a few days afterward. I took the week of my egg retrieval off, partly because I knew I'd be nuts from the hormones and partly so I had adequate time to recover from the egg retrieval. It took me longer to recover than I expected.
4. Some of the side effects I enjoyed during the egg retrieval process: headaches from Lupron (the first of four injectible drugs I used), crankiness, hot flashes, bloating, weight gain, and swollen ovaries. And mind you, I'm a pretty tough cookie.
5. I have no idea why how she responds to her period would have anything to do with how she responds to the IVF hormones. That's because we're talking about a whole different hormonal cocktail. And this has NOTHING to do with how pregnant women's hormones are monitored by gynecologists.

As for how this affects your long-term fertility -- no idea. Does anyone? (Even if she did have fertility problems down the line, how could you ever prove a correlation? If she's an egg donor at, say, 22, and can't get pregnant at 35, who's to say what the reason is?)

I don't meant to suggest she shouldn't do this -- egg donation helps thousands of people each year, and it's a blessing for them. But I worry that the clinic is feeding her a line or three. Good luck.
posted by stonefruit at 10:07 PM on March 24, 2008