New International Egg Donation Partnership to tackle UK waiting lists

- Oxford Fertility Unit partners with Europe’s largest egg donation clinic to launch IVI-Oxford 

10 July 2013 –The UK’s leading fertility group has joined forces with the largest network of egg donation clinics in Europe to launch IVI-Oxford, to tackle long waiting lists for egg donation. Oxford Fertility Unit, part of the Academic Reproductive Partnership (ARP) is the first centre in the group to link up. 

In the UK there is a severe and worsening shortage of egg donors, resulting in waiting lists of 12 to 24 months for donor eggs. This has left frustrated couples seeking fertility treatment abroad where the supply of eggs is far greater, particularly in Spain where there are no waiting lists and donors are younger.

“For couples pursuing egg donation abroad, unlike in the UK, there are often no independent regulators in fertility to help couples make an informed choice on the best clinic to choose.” said Mr Tim Child, Medical Director, Oxford Fertility Unit. “We therefore felt we should partner with Europe’s leading egg donation group to provide patients with reassurance that we have assessed procedures and success rates, whilst providing them with continuity of care in the UK.”

“We have chosen to partner with IVI, who are pioneers of the process of ultra-fast egg freezing (‘vitrification’) and have Europe’s largest donated egg bank. This allows the couple to have the egg donation treatment at a time that is convenient to them rather than having to synchronise with the egg donor. Spanish IVI staff are based in the IVI-Oxford clinic which means all of the initial consultations, work-up and monitoring happen in the UK. The only visit needed to Spain is for the embryo transfer. The chances of success with vitrified donor eggs are the same as with fresh. Their egg donation success rates, which are third party audited, are 63 per cent for a positive test and 49 per cent clinical pregnancy rate.” 

Antonio Pellicer of IVI, Spanish Lead, said, “At IVI we are very excited by this new relationship with the UK’s leading fertility group. We now have staff based in Oxford who can look after our patients throughout their egg donation treatment journey assuring the best standard of care and the highest success rates.”

The new clinic has been launched today at The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology Annual Meeting in London.

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