West Nile Virus Screening Underway At TWEB

West Nile Virus Egg Donor Screening

Our Proprietary Process For Shipping Oocytes

At The World Egg Bank, we strive to make our shipping and receiving procedures as straight forward as possible. For this reason, our shipping procedure starts days to weeks ahead of the planned shipping date. As soon as a patient has finalized the details of obtaining their eggs, an email is sent from the shipping team to the receiving clinic detailing the patient’s name, selected donor number, and date that we can ship the order, along with an estimated delivery date. This email asks for confirmation from the clinic that the proposed date(s) work, the shipping address is correct, and that the list of embryologists verified to perform our warming technique is up to date. Once we receive confirmation that all information provided is accurate and approved, the shipment is placed on the shipping team calendar and the proposed date is entered into the recipient’s file on our custom-built database.

Scheduling Shipments

To streamline the process, while managing clinic and patient expectations, we’ve learned how to limit the amount of potential weekend-time that the tanks are in transit by scheduling domestic shipments to Tuesdays and international shipments to Thursdays. The day prior to shipping, all paperwork and airway bills are created and the tanks to be used are filled with liquid nitrogen to ensure that they are charged and ready for their journey. The day of shipment, all orders are carefully packed and ready for pick up by 11:00 AM. This level of detail ensures a consistent process for every shipment that leaves our facility, thus nearly eliminating any unforeseen variables.

Verifying New Clinics

The process differs slightly for new clinics vs verified clinics. For clinics who have not worked with us before, we require them to go through our “verification process.” This is akin to training, but is limited to understanding and proper technique for our warming protocol only. Final authorization for performing any warming is left to the discretion of the laboratory director. When initially contacting a new clinic, a small packet of paperwork is sent that explains the details of our process, asks for a short equipment list to be filled out to ensure the clinic has the proper equipment to perform the task, and for information on the nearest airport and travel accommodations for our verifying embryologist. Once we receive this paperwork, the warming date can be established. Two weeks prior to the warming date the eggs are shipped from our facility. In that shipment is a packet containing a letter detailing the verification procedure, extra warming dishes, extra warming media, and a blank vitrification device. In the tank with the oocytes is one practice oocyte per embryologist being verified.

While sounding complex, these procedures are highly coordinated. Our top priority in the shipping department is to ensure success in transit. By putting these procedures in place, we have perfected minimizing issues related to the transit of oocytes.

What Donors Can Expect From Our Staff

At The World Egg Bank (TWEB) we are fortunate enough to work every day with some of the most thoughtful and generous young women; our Egg Donors. We strive to provide the donors with a warm, relaxing, and welcoming environment. Our lobby is reminiscent of a spa, rather than a medical office. Please take a virtual tour of our egg bank and egg retrieval facility:

The staff at TWEB works with donors from start to finish. Beginning with the interview process, we spend time with these women, explain each step of the donation process to them and answer all questions they might have. We then guide her through the screening process including lab work, evaluations, and consultations.

Once a donor is selected for a cycle, the nursing staff will work “hand-in hand” with the donor through all her ultrasounds, blood draws, and injections. Throughout the process we develop a great relationships with our donors.

We have found that consistent and reliable communication is imperative and always having an open line of communication via phone, email, text or in person with the nursing staff makes our donors feel more at ease during this sometimes intimidating process.

When it is time for Egg Retrieval, the nursing staff is with the donor from the start of anesthesia until they are awake and ready to go home. A hand to hold and a smiling face are tremendous comfort to the donors as they drift off to twilight sleep. Providing a positive and tranquil environment is our focus. Our walk to their car with their driver always ends in a big hug. We are with them every step of the way.

Our donors are truly remarkable women and we value each minute we spend with them.

Donating At The World Egg Bank

You will arrive at The World Egg Bank (TWEB) at your specified time, dressed in a comfortable outfit of your choosing. Our donor coordinator, Andrea, will be there to greet you and have your final paperwork ready for you to complete. Once paperwork is completed, you will be brought back into the retrieval room, where Andrea and nurse Lisa will prepare you for the procedure. Our anesthesiologist will put you under twilight sedation, comparable to getting your wisdom teeth out.

Egg Retrieval Procedure

The procedure itself takes around 15-30 minutes and is minimally invasive; no incisions, no scaring. An ultrasound guided needle is inserted through the vaginal wall to retrieve the eggs. Once the procedure is over, you will be moved into a recovery room to rest before leaving. You will not be able to drive, so please have someone drive you to and from TWEB. If you are an out of state donor, we will arrange a driver for you. Upon leaving, you will receive a thank you bag for your generous donation, which includes your reimbursement check.

Recommended Post Care

When you arrive home or back to your hotel, we highly encourage you to rest for the remainder of the day. Feel free to sleep, binge watch Netflix, snack on your favorite food, and just enjoy the rest of the day. You might experience some minimal side effects similar to PMS, such as cramping, bloating, fatigue or nausea. Every donor is different and these vary person to person.

If you need anything following your donation or have questions or concerns, our team at TWEB is always available to assist you.

It has been nearly three decades since the first live birth was achieved using frozen eggs. Since that time, many advances have been made in the field of reproductive medicine, most notably the introduction of modern vitrification (fast freezing) techniques. Numerous studies have been published confirming the outcome of cycles using frozen eggs to be just as favorable as using fresh eggs.

Recent advances in the supporting technology for reproductive medicine have allowed for us to take a closer look at the development of the embryo. In a recent study, published in the September 2017 edition of the Fertility and Sterility Journal, embryo development was evaluated utilizing time-lapse analysis and morphokinetic parameters (physical features and biological activity parameters) for assessment of embryo quality. The study revealed that there was on average only a 1-hour delay in the formation of the blastocyst (mature stage of embryo development, ideal for embryo transfer); that the quality of the embryo was not impaired; and that there was no difference in the quality, implantation rate, and clinical pregnancy rate.

This study adds to the growing body of evidence of the safety and equivalency of using frozen eggs to successfully achieve healthy pregnancies, and here at The World Egg Bank, we continuously pursue the highest standards of excellence in providing quality donor eggs for our recipients.

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) has allowed millions of couples to bear children over the last 40 years, but it remains less than 100% successful. Attention has focused on improving ovarian stimulation, insemination methods, culture techniques, and screening for genetic status of resulting embryos. These measures have increased pregnancy outcomes year by year, allowing for single embryo transfer as the standard approach in many instances.

It is indisputable that the embryo transfer (ET) itself is a vital component of the process. It seems however that the technical aspects of embryo transfer have been “below the radar” for many ART practitioners. We have known that there is a learning curve and that some operators have consistently better outcomes than their colleagues in the same practice. One concern is many fellows in US training programs perform very few ET procedures, leaving new graduates to learn on their patients. After recognizing this, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) commissioned the development of an ET trainer device, a virtual reality based simulator. A recent study showed that use of the simulator shortened the learning curve considerably for fellows (Embryo transfer simulation improves pregnancy rates and decreases time to proficiency in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility fellow embryo transfers. Heitmann, Ryan J. et al. Fertil Steril, 2017; 107, 1166 ).

Many standard techniques of ET have never been rigorously evaluated, and when they have, the results have been somewhat inconsistent. ASRM formed an Embryo Transfer Advisory Panel, seeking to improve performance of the ET by utilizing a combination of literature search and surveying Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) member practices regarding their use of various procedures. The findings have recently been published (ASRM standard embryo transfer protocol template: a committee opinion. Penzias, Alan et al. Fertil Steril, 2017; 107, 897 – 900).

The conclusions are slightly surprising and definitely worth review. Turns out that only a handful of the component steps of the ET practice are proven to be beneficial, for example transabdominal ultrasound guidance and use of a soft catheter. A few commonly employed practices such as, bed rest after ET and powder-free gloves have been demonstrated not to be beneficial. The benefits of a number of other practices are still unclear.

After review, the Practice Committee issued guidance for the basic approach to ET. The Committee also reminds us of the many benefits of standardization of clinical methods, recommending that each ART program develop a set of standard procedures to reduce risk and to optimize outcomes. It is time well spent for IVF practitioners to review these guidelines and discuss them with their clinical teams.

The World Egg Bank offers two different types of disclosure to our donors: anonymous or full disclosure.

What is anonymous?

Anonymous egg donations apply to United States recipients and in other regions where by law egg donation remain anonymous. In these cases the only information about the egg donor shared with the recipient is; age, ethnicity, medical his tory, family history, childhood or recent photographs, education, etc. Identifying information such as name, address, contact information is never released to the recipients.

What is full-disclosure?

Full-disclosure is an option for our donors who agree to donate their eggs to UK and Australian recipients. In these regions, anonymous donations are no longer allowed so that people born from donated gametes are able to trace their biological history if they desire. Agreeing to full disclosure means that the donor is open to the possibility that if a child is born from her donation, the child might be able to contact her. By doing so the egg donor is opening herself to being an eligible donor for about 50% of The World Egg Bank’s current recipient’s in full disclosure regions in addition to the recipients from anonymous regions.

Legal Implications of full-disclosure: Donors, recipients and the individuals born as result of the donation, have legal rights and responsibilities.

Many egg donors describe their experience during their donation cycle and post-retrieval as being similar to PMS symptoms, such as cramping, bloating, fatigue, soreness, etc. There is a way to help conquer these common side effects and that is through the magic of food! We’ve compiled a list for donors to help fuel their body of key nutrients before, during and after their cycle:

1) An egg is the largest cell in the female body. It’s about the size of a needle point and could even be seen with the human eye. Even more fascinating, it’d take about 15,000 sperm to make the size of one egg!

2) I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “You’re born with all the eggs you’ll ever have,” which is true, however the average woman will only ovulate about 400 – 500 times in her life between puberty and menopause. That means hundreds of thousands of eggs are naturally absorbed into the body.

3) The lifespan of a matured egg is only about 12-24 hours. If it is not fertilized during that timeframe then it is flushed out of the body. Although the egg’s lifespan short a sperm can live in a woman’s fallopian tubes for 1 to 5 days, so it’s possible to get pregnant within a 5 day period after unprotected sex if the egg ovulates while sperm is still present in the reproductive tract.

4) When vitirified (frozen), female eggs have a much longer lifespan. The oldest egg used to produce healthy baby was frozen for nearly 25 years.

The World Egg Bank’s main focus, as you might assume by our name, is operating as an egg bank. In addition to our day-to-day business we also believe that we have the unique ability to be an educational tool on a communal level, especially in regards to women’s reproductive health.

Every month we screen prospective egg donors to ensure they’re healthy and meet FDA requirements to donate. Through this testing protocol our organization has become hyperaware of the amount of women who live low-risk (and in many case monogamist) lifestyles that are unknowingly infected with an STD. In many of these cases women are in complete shock and can’t even think or who/when they would’ve contracted from. At TWEB, we want to educate and promote STD awareness, risks and prevention in hopes that all women can better protect their bodies in an informed manner.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that more than 1 in 2 people will have an STD at some point in their life. That’s right – 1 in 2, as in 50% of the population. Many of these STDs contracted are those that can usually be treated with antibiotics, however, it’s worth pointing out that there are now reported strains of the once treatable Gonorrhea that are becoming antibiotic resistent. Scary stuff to say the least! Young people account for a substantial portion of new STDs and the consequences can be particularly severe for women. It is reported by the CDC that undiagnosed STDs cause an estimated 24,000 women to become infertile each year. This is often times due to lack of symptoms and/or delayed testing. If STDs go left untreated for long periods of time it can lead to irreparable damage to the reproductive oregons.

As you heard in sex ed the surest was to avoid STDs is abstinence, but realistically that route isn’t for everyone. For those who are sexually active their best line of defense and protection against STDs is the following – get tested, use condoms and communicate with partners. Regular testing for STDs is important because many infections can have little to no symptoms, so there is a chance that you and/or a partner could be infected and spreading the disease without even knowing it. Using a condom consistently and correctly greatly reduces the risk of contracting STDs through genital fluids, as well as sligtly lessens the risk herpes and HPV (although these can still be transmitted through skin to skin contact).

If you are considering having unprotected sex, be sure to discuss with your partner the following:

Although this can seem like an uncomfortable discussion, it is important to have rather than assume a partner has been tested and free of STDs. Keep in mind you both have the right to know and make an informed decision before having unprotected sex. By taking necessary procautions and opening the lines of communication you will have reins to take control of your own sexual health.