Treatments
Egg donation is a method used in patients who cannot achieve pregnancy with their own eggs, but who have a functional uterus. In this treatment, the eggs of an egg donor are used.
Who can benefit from egg donations?
• Patients in menopause
• Patients in the transition period to menopause
• Patients with recurrent IVF failure
• Cases with poor egg quality in previous IVF trials
• Cases in which eggs could not be obtained in the IVF trial
• Cases whose ovaries were surgically removed
• Patients who received chemotherapy or radiotherapy
• Carriers of a genetic or chromosomal disease
Egg donor criteria
• The recommendations of infertility associations in Europe and America are taken as the basis of egg donors. (ESHRE and ACOG recommendations)
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a method that helps women and couples who are having difficulty conceiving a child.
Unlike natural conception, IVF involves taking a woman’s eggs from her ovaries and fertilising them with sperm in a laboratory. Any embryos generated during this procedure will be returned to the womb to mature and thrive.IVF Treatment Process
• You must contact us 2 months before the date you want to start the treatment.
• Treatment begins with the menstrual period.
• The expectant mother begins the treatment process by using egg-developing needles. This process is followed from your location.
• Needles are to be used for 12-15 days.
•After the needle treatment is finished, the expectant mother should visit our centre to collect the eggs and the father must visit our centre to give a sperm sample.
• The expectant mother can return 3-4 hours after the egg collection process or stay in Cyprus until the transfer day. The father-to-be does not need to be present at our centre on the day of the transfer.
• The expectant mother comes to our centre for the transfer process 3 to 5 days after the egg collection process. During this period, the expectant mother should also use hormone medication. The expectant mother can return 4 hours after the transfer process.
• 12 days after the transfer, the expectant mother can learn the result by taking a blood test.
• After the transfer, the expectant mother continues to take some hormonal drugs until the baby’s heartbeat is heard.
IVF using sperm donation can be used in cases where a man’s sperm is unable to fertilise the egg or for single women who want children.
Who is sperm donation IVF recommended to?
• Azoospermia (absence of sperm) – failure to obtain sperm in micTESE or TESE
• Poor results in IVF treatment due to sperm quality
• Carriers of genetic diseases that cannot be studied in embryos
• Carriers of viral diseases that cannot be cleared from semen
• Detection of severe chromosomal abnormality in sperm
• The man is Rh+ and therefore isoimmunization has been detected in the woman’s previous pregnancy
• Single women who want to get pregnant
How are individuals selected for sperm donation?
• Sperm donors are selected from the sperm bank. Each donor has a certificate of disease screening. Donors are selected from the European sperm bank in accordance with the physical characteristics and blood groups of the recipient.
What are the preparations required?
• Preliminary preparation of the woman is essential for the use of sperm. For this, the woman is given hormone supplements to develop her eggs following some examinations. This process is called ovulation induction.
On the 3rd day of menstruation, induction is started by using injections in order to increase the number and quality of egg cells.
These injections are administered with varying doses according to the age of the expectant mother and the condition of the egg reserves.
In IVF centres in Cyprus, this induction can vary between 8 and 12 days on average.
When the egg cells reach the desired size, a cracking injection is made and egg collection is planned in our centre within 36 hours (1.5 days).
At the same time as egg collection, sperm are taken from the father and the eggs are fertilised by microinjection (ICSI) and turned into embryos.
12 days after the transfer, the result of pregnancy is learned by performing ßHCG tests in the blood.
What is the Egg Collection Process?
Egg collection is a simple and painless procedure. This procedure is performed under light anaesthesia in our IVF centre and takes approximately 15-20 minutes. Couples can return to their countries the same day after egg collection if they wish. They can come to our IVF centre after 4 days for the transfer again, or they can not return to their country due to their workload and stay in a lodging or hotel in Cyprus until the transfer.
ICSI is a type of in vitro fertilization (IVF) where a single sperm is injected directly to a single egg cell Other than the insemination method, all the steps of the ICSI are same with the IVF. As opposed to IVF, ICSI uses a single sperm and egg cell where IVF requires hundreds of thousands. ICSI is generally used where severe male infertility, after many failed IVF cycles, Frozen Embryo Transfer or where frozen egg and sperm cells are going to be used. Unexplicable male infertility, advanced age of the patients or few availavle eggs are the main reasons for using ICSI.
ICSI procedure is used to ensure that the best quality sperm is used for fertilization, whether own egges, donor eggs, own spem or donor sperms are used
Step 1-TestingFirst of all, the male patients have to complete the required tests, such as HIC,HbsAG, Anti-HCV and sperm analysis test if he does not have any children or fertility problems.
When the egg is going to be collected during IVF, sperm sample is also collected and prepared for the ICSI. Only one sperm is injected into each egg. ICSI will be done using several micromanipulation devices such as micromanipulator, microinjectors and micropipettes under a microscope for aiding fertilization of the egg. For holding and stabilizing the mature oocyte, a pipette is used. After this, single sperm cell will be collected by a micropipette and inserted into the egg. Even though there is no guarantee that every egg will be fertilized, ICSI gives the best opportunity for fertilization to happen. Low sperm count is generally not important for ICSI as the procedure choses the best quality sperm for the treatment.
Gamete cells (eggs/sperm) and embryo freezing is a very common technique nowadays. A newer choice of freezing technique (cryptopreservation) i vitrification, which provides more succesfull freezing. Very high survival chance of gamete cells and embryos can be achieved by this technique of freezing. According to scientific publications, frozen embryos or gametes do not increase the risk of genetic problems in children. These children does not have any abnormality when compared with the children conceived naturally.
Gamete freezing is usually chosen by patients who believe that they may no longer produce healthy gametes and want to use their gametes in the future. This might happen when undergoing a surgery that may affect their reproductive status or might arise from cancer. This process is especially suitable for patients who travel a lot and might not be available for giving a gamete sample when required. Patients who have their main focus on their career may use this method to start their family plans once they are ready. Freezing process can also be applied to embryos. These embryos are the ones whic are created during an IVF. It is a very commont practice to freeze extra embryos afet an IVF cycle fot a later use. The fazt freezinf vitrification technique whish is used by our Embryologists has no hamr on embryos and it minimizes the crystallization risk which migh happen with standard freezing methods.Egg freezing started in 1986, however, this old process led lower survival rates for the eggs when frozen. Nowadays, eggs can be frozen and thawed succesfully witj tje vitrification process. This process is no longer experimental. As cancer treatments may risk future fertility of the patients, they may be offered the option of freezing their eggs. Forzen eggs do not age and they maintaiin the same potential of pregnancy with the age of th patients once they were frozen. In many scientific studies, it was shown that patients who freeze their eggs up to the age of 42 has a very high chance of getting a succesful pregnancy from those eggs but younger patients have higher chance of pregnancy. For older patients, it may be harder to find enough eggs for freezing, therefore, for these patients several egg collections (egg pooling) may have better results. Once a patients is ready to use their frozen eggs for pregnancy, an assesment will be held and they will be given proper medication to prepare their body for pregnancy. Then the eggs will be thawed and injected with sperm and the embryos created will be placed in the uterus of the patient to see if they will implan and create pregnancy.
Assisted hatching is a process where a micro-manipulation technique is used in a laboratory that can occur before the embryos are implanted to the uterus after an IVF or ICSI. This method supports the embro to hatch from the zona pellucida.
Zona pellucida is an outer shell which surrounds and protects the embryo during its first days. This zone dissolves and allows the embryo to implan into the uterus after hatching out once the embryo reaches the uterus. Assisted hatching process is done by our experienced embryologists in a laboratory using a very powerful microscope by making a very small incision in the zona pellucida by the help of a micro needle. After this process, once the embryo is returned to the uterus, it can hatch through tis small incision and naturally implan in the uterus. It is thought that infertility of some patients is caused by hardeninz of the zona pellucida which makes it harder for the embryo to hatch and implant.Who can benefit from assisted hatching?
Asissted hatching methos is usually ideal for the following patieeents:
- Females who are 35 or older
- Females with high FSH levels
- Couples who failed previous IVF cycles for impregnation
- Couples who are suffering from a thickenings of the zona pellucida
- Replacements of the frozen embryo
- Females who are 35 or older
- Females with high FSH levels
- Couples who failed previous IVF cycles for impregnation
- Couples who are suffering from a thickenings of the zona pellucida
- Replacements of the frozen embryo
Unlike natural conception, IVF involves taking a woman’s eggs from her ovaries and fertilising them with sperm in a laboratory. Any embryos generated during this procedure will be returned to the womb to mature and thrive.
Multiple embryos can emerge from a successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) session, and some people choose to freeze the additional embryos for future family formation.
Patients who undergo preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) usually freeze their embryos following the test because the findings can take up to a week to arrive. Freezing embryos is another method for preserving future fertility. Some people opt for this operation because they are having hormone therapy, cancer treatment, gender affirmation surgery, or another medical procedure that will affect their fertility. In some cases, your doctor may propose freezing your embryos to reduce the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which can become more severe after pregnancy. It might also be suggested to help boost the chances of getting pregnant.This application is made within the criteria determined by the Ministry of Health, depending on the laws of the TRNC.
Who is surrogacy applied to?
• Women who are born without a womb
• Women whose womb was removed due to compulsory surgery (tumor, fibroid, cancer, etc.)
• Women whose uterus cannot bear pregnancy
• Ashermann syndrome (women who are not suitable for carrying a pregnancy even if they have a uterus)
• In cases where the woman is at high risk of becoming pregnant and giving birth (women with serious heart and lung conditions and coagulation disorders that may pose a life-threatening risk).
• Patients with a congenital anomaly
• Patients with kidney failure
• Patients with a history of breast cancer
