Immunology: Repeat trials of oocyte donation to women with previous donor oocyte success

Oocyte donation has proven to be highly successful in establishingpregnancy in functionally agonadal women. Both implantationand ongoing pregnancy rates in women using this method havesurpassed those normally seen in standard in-vitro fertilization(IVF) patients. Over a 5 year period, seven women who had previouslyconceived using oocyte donation elected to attempt pregnancyand deliver a second child using the same donor. In each casethe paramount consideration was to provide a sibling of thesame genetic make-up as the child or children previously borne.Of the seven women studied, whose ages ranged from 24 to 44years, five became pregnant on subsequent cycles. The time toconception varied from one to a maximum of three attempts withthree of the five women becoming pregnant on the first cycleand two requiring three cycles to establish the subsequent pregnancy.The overall rate of success in this group was 12 pregnanciesin 20 cycles of embryo transfer (60%). An exaggerated implantationrate (25.6%) was also noted (23 individual embryo implantationsfrom 90 embryos transferred). Of the 12 pregnancies establishedin these seven women, four (33%) were multiple gestations (threetriplets, one twin). We conclude that women who have previouslyexperienced pregnancy following oocyte donation are highly likelyto conceive in a subsequent trial at a rate that may be higherthan that normally seen in the general population of women undergoingoocyte donation.