What is the Success Rate When a Lesbian Carries an Egg from Her Partner?
Answered by Carol Frost Vercollone, author of Helping the Stork (Hungry Minds Inc., 1997) and a social worker specializing in donor insemination, infertility and adoption counseling. Feb. 28, 2001
What is the success rate when a lesbian carries an egg from her partner?
Q: My partner and I are interested in information regarding the possibility of my carrying her egg. We are concerned with success rates, risks and costs.
Thank you,
Angela
A: Hi, Angela,
Basically, if you carry your partner's egg, both of you would go through an "egg-donation cycle." This means that your partner would go through the medical steps to mature multiple eggs to be retrieved and fertilized with your chosen donor sperm while you simultaneously would go through the steps to get your uterine lining synchronized with her cycle so that it would be ready to have those embryos transferred to you.
The most recent official statistics on the success rates of in vitro fertilization procedures such as the one you are interested in and other artificial reproductive technologies were released by the Centers for Disease Control on Jan. 21, 2001. They show that there were 80,634 artificial reproductive technology attempts in 1998, resulting in the birth of 28,500 babies.
To find out more recent success rates and costs of in vitro fertilization procedures by doctors in your area, you will need to contact them directly. To find out which doctors perform these procedures, contact Resolve, the national infertility association, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine or the InterNational Council on Infertility Information Dissemination.
To learn more about risks and other issues, I would recommend reading Brian Kearney's High-Tech Conception (Bantam Books, 1998).
Let me know what you decide!
Carol Frost Vercollone
Vercollone is the author of Helping the Stork (Hungry Minds Inc., 1997) and a social worker specializing in donor insemination, infertility and adoption counseling.
Feb. 28, 2001