13 replies to this topic

[molly2566]

Hello, 

 

I'm looking for advice and recommendations for doing IVF with donor eggs outside Canada (we live in BC). We have been doing research on egg donor agencies in the US and Europe and finding the whole process incredibly overwhelming. Looking for any recommendations for places to go (countries, clinics) or advice on the process. Has any one used a clinic in Canada to liaise with an international donor? Or has anyone traveled to another country for both donor eggs and IVF treatment? 

 

Our story: 

We lost our daughter in December 2013. She was stillborn at full-term due to a severe congenital heart condition. I went on to have an etopic pregnancy in April 2014. As a result of the surgery for the etopic pregnancy, my one tube was damaged and is now fully blocked. And, we also recently found out, after trying to conceive for several months, that I have now have decreased ovarian reserve (they are not sure why this happened all of the sudden. I got pregnant both times before on the first try. I'm 31 years old). We have been told that our only option is IVF and that we will likely have to use donor eggs as a result of my DOR levels being so low. Needless to say, it's been one thing after another. 

 

Any advice or recommendations for navigating the donor egg/IVF process outside Canada would be incredibly helpful

 

Thank you! 

[momme2be]

Hi Molly, first I want to say that I am so very sorry for what you had to go through! You are an incredible and strong woman for wanting to move forward after your experiences.
Second, I have not gone abroad and did not use donor eggs. I did IVF in Canada, however when my husband and I were researching our IVF options we thought of going to the clinic in Zlin, Czech Rep. My hubby is Czech so I thought it would be nice option to go for vacation and do IVF. Price wise the cost of IVF in Czech was little lower than here in Canada even with the flight tickets and hotels. Now, I am not sure how much it would be with DE but it can't be more than IVF here. We planned to travel do Vienna and to Prague and to see family so that was also included in the final price. I have contacted clinic in Zlin on few occasions and they were always very professional and quick to respond. The clinic looks clean, classy and top notch on the pictures. There is a IVF DE abroad thread on here that I read and many couples used Czech clinics as well as Mexico etc... In Czech the only thing that kind of was weird to me that you have to be legally married to do IVF. I ended up with my IVF in Canada because of ky school and I couldn't take the break to go away. But if I had that option I would definitely go to Europe. I know the lady on my due date thread did DE cycle in Greece and she is now pregnant. She is very nice and I am sure she would share her experience with you. Her name on here is ociwoman. She had a positive experience with her cycle.
I know that maybe this was not much help to you but I hope I can give you hope. We have been TTC for 8 years and it finally happened for us so please do not ever loose hope.
I wish you all the best and sending you a huge hug.

[momme2be]

https://ivf.ca/forums...abroad-for-ivf/

This is the link for the Travelling abroad for IVF

[JacMac]

There's another member Quandry who went to the Czech Republic for a donor egg cycle as well.

[PrairiePaddleChick]

I used the RFP in Calgary and purchased donor eggs from myeggbank.com as that is the egg bank that they preferred to work with. Their success rates were very good from what they have told me. I have twins on the way, due in February from that cycle.

[Tess]

Molly,

 

I'm so sorry to hear about how difficult it's been for you.  I don't have personal experience with DE, but I'm in the process of researching options while we're saving money for the process.  

 

Local clinics in Canada will often act as a monitoring/ coordinating clinic for a fee.  

 

OciWoman has a great description of donor egg in Greece.  If you look in traveling abroad for donor egg on this site, you can see her very useful description.  To help coordinate cycles abroad there is a UK nurse named Ruth Pellow who lives in Athens.  She coordinates with 4 clinics -- 2 in Spain and 2 in Greece.  http://www.ivftreatm...om/theteam.html  

 

Ruth is employed by the clinics, so her services are free to you.  OciWoman went through Ruth and choose to use the Iakentro clinic in Greece.  http://www.iakentro..../about-iakentro

 

I've been researching donor egg in the States.  Please feel free to message if you have any questions or if there's a state you'd like recommendations about.    You may want to look at the CDC/ART clinic success rates on the internet.  http://www.cdc.gov/art/

 

It's a bit overwhelming because of the number of clinics in the States.   But, in case this helps - some recommendations for the US: Here's some clinics with great success rates for DE:

 

East Coast:  

Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey, Basking Ridge

South Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine, Miami

 

Middle West:

CCRM, Denver

Advanced Fertility Clinic of Chicago  http://www.advancedfertility.com/

And there are very good clinics in Houston & Dallas.  

 

 

West:

Oregon Reproductive Medicine

California:  so many clinics.  UCSD is one of the best.

Also San Diego Fertility has a large in-house donor list/bank

 

For best buys - look in less central cities:

for example - Idaho Center for Reproductive Medicine in Boise has an in-house donor list.  One of the women on this site cycled at the center over the summer & is now pregnant.  

 

Minneapolis -- smaller cities -- tend to run donor cycles for significantly less money.  Also - it's much more affordable to go with an clinic that has an in-house donor list then to go to an agency.  & some clinics have guarantee live birth or money-back cycles.  

[kookacola]

Prarie- can you message me information about the donar bank? Very annoyed that RFP never mentioned this to me on our last phone conversation. Molly-so sorry for your losses. I did use donar eggs to get pregnant with out dd and she'll be 5 tomorrow! We knew our donar. It was a friend I'd known for 20+ years. Including my medications and her medications the total for the cycle was about 9k. It was less for her cycle than mine. We had VFC and McGill in mind but waited for her to decide if she was going to donate and put some eggs asside for herself down the road or strictly donate. If you have any questions about the experience we had, you are welcome to send me a message.

[molly2566]

Hi Everyone, 

 

Thank you so much for all your advice, sharing your experiences and the helpful links! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it  

 

My husband and I are now looking into clinics in the Czech Republic and have been speaking to a few over email this week. So far we have been really impressed by their level of service and professionalism. And, the cost is 1/4 of what we were quoted here in BC. If we have to go the Donor Egg route, it also seems like a good option in CZ. We are just trying to sort out how it would all work out in terms of getting our medication ahead of time in Canada, travel time to CZ, etc. Obviously coming from Canada and working full-time, we want to try to stay for as short a period of time as possible, but it may be tricky. It's all a bit overwhelming, but at the same time, I feel really positive about trying IVF somewhere else. Maybe just getting away from it all might be what we need! 

 

Thank you all again!!! 

[quandry]

We were very happy with the clinic in Zlin. There are a few ppl here who have used them. Very professional, proactive and easy to work with. And I'm currently 23 weeks pregnant which made it all worthwhile. We did s two week amazing vacay at the same time and total cost (including a car rental $$$) was less than 14k. Six donor frozen eggs in Canada was going to cost us over 20k.

Good luck!

[molly2566]

We are booked with Reprofit in Brno CZ and feeling pretty good about it  

 

I'm wondering if anyone had experience shipping medications to Canada through either IVFmeds.com or IVFprescriptions.com? 

 

Thanks!

[quandry]

Most likely any meds coming from outside Canada will be stopped at the border. I've seen women struggle last minute when meds don't show up. See if a gp or an fs will help you out...

[EMJ]

Quandry is right. I did a cycle in Prague and my medication was confiscated at the border. I was sent a letter informing me it was illegal to ship medication if I wasn't a doctor or pharmacist. I ended paying to be monitored by my home clinic and one of those services included the RE rewriting the prescription.

[quandry]

My fs followed the recommendations of Zlin. At least till I got back anyways. Then they refused. So I'd make sure you come home with everything you need just in case.

[quandry]

The Brno area is nice. More accessible than Zlin (although not as countryside so s but less pretty but only slightly). We had to go through Brno to go to almost everywhere we wanted. It's driving distance to Austria, Prague, Poland.... So many great places. Make sure you see lednice castle and kromeriz castle, and the town of Olomouc. Just outside of Prague is a town called kutna hora. Beautiful. Best part is an ossuary but it also has an amazing cathedral.