Frequently Asked Questions By Intended Parents: India

I am sure you must have many questions you want to ask, and I am pretty sure someone who has walked this path before you has asked a similar question. After interacting with hundreds of other intended parents, I we have put together a list of the questions that come up most often. If you have any others, please let me know so that I can update this list of FAQs.

• Q: How much does this all cost in India?

• A: The short answer is around $12,000 in New Delhi. This includes the cost of the IVF Cycle, the donor and implantation in the female intended parent.

• Q: What is the process in India?

• The process is as follows

  1. You decide you would like to use an Indian Donor and have the process done in New Delhi

  2. We will send you the forms to complete, which you complete and return to us.

  3. Upon receipt of the forms you receive the following:

  1. A welcome letter from the clinic
  2. Travel, car and hotel options for your 10 day stay in India.
  3. A protocol for the female Intended Parent to prepare herself for four weeks before going to India.
  4. Upon receipt, please take the protocol to your local physician to get started on the protocol. These charges are not included in the $12,000 fee and may be covered by your health insurance.
  5. In parallel we will send your donor preferences and photo to India, for donor selection. They will go through their database of several hundred donors and send you about 10 profiles for you to select from. You will send them back your top two choices and one of these will be assigned to you.
  6. You then schedule your trip to India.
  7. On arrival, you will be greeted by a Car with an English speaking driver who will take you to your hotel and be at your disposable throughout your stay.
  8. The next morning the driver will take you to the very luxurious marble covered spotless clinic where the male intended parent will give a sperm specimen and the female intended parent will be examined medically and prepared as needed for the IVF donation.
  9. Generally speaking, only 1 or 3 eggs at most will be implanted due to the high risk of having twins. This will depend on the female intended parents lining and personal wishes on the morning of the transfer.
  10. Upon completion of the embryo implantation, the intended parents will rest for 48 hours and then fly home.
  11. The female will then schedule a pregnancy test on day 10 of the embryo implantation and if everything goes well, will be pregnant!
• Q: How are success rates in India versus the USA IVF Centres?
• A: We have found them to be fairly similar. Biggest difference is that in the USA, we are seeing mostly 1-2 eggs being implanted with more 1’s. In India, also you see 1-2 eggs being implanted but many more 2’s
• Q: Which fertility clinic / doctor should I use?
• A: Indian Egg Donors works with the top fertility clinics and doctors in India and we will assist you to choose a clinic and doctor that is best suited for you.
• Q: What information is required from me?
• A: We will ask you to complete a short info sheet so that we have your details; the clinic will ask you to complete a full medical questionnaire with all your most recent test results.
• Q: How long do I have to wait for a donor?
• A: That is one of the best things about our donor program – We have many donors available immediately! The wait is only as long as it takes for you to find a donor who meets all your requirements. If you are a six foot tall, Physician from Punjab and you are looking for someone exactly like you, who is your twin sister, you will have to wait a while. For anyone else, there should be one of the over 500 immediately available donors who should fit your profile.
• Q: How much information is available about the donor?

• A. Unlike some other donor programs, future parents are able to view full information about prospective donors, including personality and character information, family history going back two generations, education history, medical information, etc. as well as photos of the donor as a child.

• Q: How many eggs will the donor make?
• A: That is an impossible thing to predict as each donor will respond individually to the stimulation protocol, and even the same donor might respond differently each time she donates. What we can tell you is that most Indian fertility clinics follow best practices and do a low, gentle stim on the donors in order to ensure that an optimum number of excellent quality eggs are retrieved (rather than many poor eggs) and more importantly, so that the health and wellbeing of the donor is never compromised. The average number of eggs retrieved is 12-14.
• Q: Can I select the Sex of my Baby?
• A: A. Yes, in the USA and Canada. Intended parents frequently like to have either a boy or a girl child, depending upon their individual preferences. Let the IVF Centre in the USA or Canada know your choice prior to the embryos being prepared. The IVF Centre and Embryologist will take it into consideration on selecting the sperm to use to fertilize the eggs.
  B. Many IVF Centres in the USA do have an extra charge for sex selection.
  C. No in India. Sex selection is illegal in India.
• Q: How many embryos will be transferred?
• A: Usually about 4 to 6 embryos are prepared. One or Two (depending on your preference.)
• Q: What will happen with the unused embryos?
• A: They will be frozen using the latest/best freezing technique.
• Q: Can I ship the frozen embryos back to my home country?
• A: Short answer: No from India. However, it is often easier and cheaper to come back for a FET in India. FETs are very cheap and require a much shorter stay.
• Q: How long do I need to be in India for?
• A: Ten to twelve days. A few days before retrieval and a few days after transfer. By being here for 12 days you allow for a slightly earlier or a slightly later retrieval. (Note: 12 days is required for the female patient, however the male patient can be here for a shorter time)
• Q: How far in advance can I book my donor in India?
• A: Three months. We don’t hold donors for longer than three months unless there are exceptional circumstances.
• Q: How far in advance can I do my travel arrangements?
• A:You should only book your flight and accommodation details once the fertility clinic has issued your treatment plan. You will have tentative dates to work around, but please do not book your air ticket until the clinic says ‘go’. (This will happen once the donor has been through all her screening appointments and blood tests)
• Q: How are the dates for my treatment cycle worked out?
• A: In your initial discussion with the doctor and fertility sister, you will let them know when you would like to be in India – i.e. your preferred dates for your 10- 12 day stay. They will then confirm those dates with the donor, and then they will work out a treatment plan based on your chosen dates. In summary, it involves working back from your preferred dates to see when the donor should stop the pill, when her first injections start etc.
• Q: Why do the donors donate?

• A: Depends on the donor. They donate for a variety of reasons, some for money, but mostly it is around giving back something to other people. You know how you get some people who volunteer, who recycle, who seem to genuinely care about their fellow human beings? That is the type of donor we have on our database. Genuinely amazing people.

  To illustrate this point, check out this email we just got from donor ‘C’: “Thanx, would it be possible to rather have the money (if chosen) donated to a charity as I’m not after this for the money?”

• What type of screening will the donor undergo?

• A: Donors are thoroughly pre-screened by the IVF Center they are sent to. Once selected, the donor will undergo a psychological assessment and a medical assessment. The psychological assessment has three main purposes: (1) that the donor is fully aware of what is involved in donating in her eggs and that she understands all the implications and risks involved, (2) that she is mentally healthy to donate and (3) that there are no known psychological disorders that would disqualify her from donating.

  The medical assessment must be repeated each time the donor donates to ensure that the results are current. This involves blood tests which includes (but is not limited to) testing for infectious diseases including HIV I and II antibodies, RPR (Syphilis). Hepatitis B surface antigen, Hepatitis C antibodies and CMV (Cytomegalovirus) IgM. In addition, the donor will have a pelvic ultrasound to ensure that her ovaries are in an optimum state to donate.

• Q: How do I know that the information provided in the donor’s profile is true?

• A:While some of the information can be verified, we rely on the donor’s integrity to be honest. Because there is limited financial incentive to donate, there is also no incentive for the donors to lie about any of their information. Unless someone has a penchant for having needles jabbed in them, suffering PMS-like hormone swings, bloating and undergoing a fairly invasive medical procedure, it is highly unlikely that anyone would want to lie their way onto an egg donor program

• Q: How do I know that the donor I choose off the website is the same donor who will donate for me?
• A:We provide the donor’s details and your details to the fertility clinic. The doctor will specifically check that the donor who is matched with you is the same donor you have chosen
• Q: What about future contact with the donor?
• A: Our contracts stipulates that egg donation should be anonymous, unless it is a known donor (friend or family member). This means that no contact is allowed between donor and recipient.
• Q: Will it work?

• A: Short answer: Up to 70% of the time it does work, first time. But obviously it doesn’t work first time, every time. You might need to come back to do a FET, or to try again. We hope you are one of the lucky 70% for who it works the first time.

  However, even with the best success rate in the world, no procedure has a 100% success rate. This means for some, the procedure doesn’t work the first time. You might want to consider having a backup plan if you are part of the unlucky few for whom the procedure isn’t successful on the first attempt. What we have found is a great backup option is for the male partner to give a second sample of sperm to freeze at the clinic. This means that if a second trip to India is required, only the female partner needs to travel to India and stay for a much shorter time as the frozen sperm will be available on the day of egg retrieval. This means less time away from home and less travel costs. Speak to your doctor about the option of keeping a second sample of frozen sperm at the clinic should a second attempt be required.
  In most cases, storing the extra frozen embryo is an adequate backup plan.

  For even more questions, answers and information relating to egg donation in , please refer to our website