Consultations

First consultation with a Doctor

Your first exploratory consultation is with a fertility doctor to discuss your particular circumstances and so that we can listen to and understand your needs. The doctor will review your medical history and help you to establish if the donor egg programme is the right option for you.

When you decide to book into our EDE Programme, the consultant refers you to the Sims Egg Donation Co-ordinators, who are your main points of contact throughout the treatment.

Meeting with your EDE Programme Co-ordinators

If you decide you would like to proceed, we invite you to meet with an EDE Programme Coordinator at Sims IVF. Your co-ordinator become your main link to Sims and will do everything to care for you and ensure that your needs are met, at all stages of the process.

Our Sims IVF EDE Coordinators have a particularly sensitive and empathetic approach to their work. They have decades of experience in the area of fertility testing and treatment. In fact, they have experience in working with both donors and recipients. Our co-ordinators have each met thousands of couples all hoping to conceive and raise a child.

Your co-ordinator goes through the full process of the donor programme with you, including time frames and investigations that need to be carried out.

Investigations

At the outset, we take a blood sample from both you and your partner. Naturally, it is important to test for rubella immunity, hormone levels, HIV,VDRL and Hepatitis B and C.

We also do a reproductive auto-immune screening, to ensure that the embryo will not be rejected at a later stage. In some cases, fertility problems and positive response to IVF can be hampered by the immune system that turns on the newly-implanted embryo and destroys it.

We have set up a Medical Immunology Clinic offering auto-immune testing and treatment, which can significantly improve the chances of implantation.

We perform semen analysis, which may be carried out at your local IVF clinic, if you reside outside Ireland.

The doctor, during a vaginal scan, checks the uterine cavity by infusing some saline into the cavity in order to check for any abnormalities and to ensure there is easy access to the uterus.

Semen freeze is conducted approximately three weeks after the sperm DNA fragmentation test is done.