EZS DK - Exchange insufficient quality/quantity

Dear Community,

I am currently looking for a suitable clinic abroad for double donation. I was initially in favor of Denmark. However, in recent months there have been an increasing number of negative reports in many forums and social media, which has made me feel very insecure and I can hardly trust the clinics. Numerous women report miscarriages/MA before gestational week 12, the number of blastocysts is absurdly low (sometimes only 1 blastocyst ), the quality is rather BC than AB/BA, sometimes even CC. Some of the donors were stimulated too much, which also led to a drop in quality. And clinics (including Diers and Sellmer) have increasingly divided the "yield" of a donor in fresh transfer among several patients.

I ask myself: How can I be sure that my chosen clinic is not acting in this way? How did you choose your clinic and how did you select the donor? Have you had similar experiences?

I'm now leaning towards a country where the donors undergo genetic testing beforehand. Because I have already had miscarriages with my own embryos and I would like to rule these out with embryos. However, if they are not tested or not carefully selected or are treated incorrectly, the risk of miscarriage may simply be too high.

Thank you in advance for sharing your experiences, which are very important for other women!

Hi Milka,

Thank you for your contribution. Then at least I'm not alone with these worries and others have also read these negative experience reports. That's good to know. The Czech Republic is out of the question for me: no single women and no open donation.

The results of my research so far: open donation is available in Denmark (no genetic testing), Finland (long waiting time), England (expensive), Portugal, Greece and allegedly Northern Cyprus. In Cyprus, however, not as a fresh transfer (only by ordering from an external DC bank, which makes it significantly more expensive and minimizes the chances of success). In Greece, clinics actually try to dissuade you from making an open donation in advance (this happened to me several times by email and once during the initial interview). Here they try to handle it like in Cyprus.

Have a sunny Sunday

I was currently leaning towards Greece or Portugal. For me, the desire for a fresh transfer clashes with the fixed criteria of open donation and genetic checks of the donors. Not easy... In the end, I may have to forego the fresh transfer, order from EZ-Bank or go for embryo donation.

Hey Primavera,

Congratulations!

You had some fresh transfers with EZS? What was the cause of the implantation failure?

Thank you Peanuts.78 for sharing your experience. How nice that it worked out for you!

The fact that it takes several transfers and even several donors cannot be generalized and is unusual in other countries. This describes exactly my problem with Denmark.

In the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Portugal, Greece, Finland, England and the USA, for example, donors are genetically screened for all possible hereditary diseases. I'm not talking about PGT-A, but CF, SMA, Fragile X, karyotype. PGT-A can then be booked as an option. The genetic tests naturally minimize the risk of miscarriage. In Denmark, however, they are not tested. That would be too much of a risk for me, especially with the new reports.

Now we are moving a bit away from my original questions (How can I be sure that my chosen clinic will not do this? How did you choose your clinic and how did you choose the donor?)

But I'll answer in more detail with post-context, for more understanding and to avoid misunderstandings:

The success rate per transfer was lower in Denmark than in Spain, Greece, Ukraine, Portugal, UK, USA etc. (see ESHRE, SART, HFEA, national registries such as SEF or translated/summarized on kinderwunsch-im-ausland.de, fertilityroad.com). When I add this fact to the increase in negative experience reports from acquaintances and from relevant forums (klein-pu.., urbia, kinderwunschforum, Facebook groups on EZS), it gives me a lot to think about and it also makes me feel insecure about my search for clinics in other countries.

Here are the statistics on success rates per transfer with EZS in Europe - although unfortunately the older ones:

I found hardly any live birth rates after EZS on Danish websites and 4 Danish clinics I had initial discussions with didn't give me any either. Only one clinic gave a miscarriage rate. This was between 25 and 30%, which worried me, as the live birth rate is below 20% and therefore well below the European average. The "success rates" given on the websites only represent pregnancy rates in the first few weeks or even the sum of several transfers per client. This is not a statement - especially not if donors have not been sufficiently genetically tested. In Greece (except Embryoland ;), the Czech Republic and Portugal, success rates were usually communicated differently.

The experiences I have heard from acquaintances from treatment in Denmark are not known from other countries. Donor to clinic changes, 5 transfers and multiple miscarriages from one donor simply do not correspond to the European norm (norm = corresponding to the majority). If I look around my personal network, the women who got pregnant during the first transfer and stayed pregnant (which is the actual goal) were in the Czech Republic or Spain for treatment. And yes, that is not uncommon here after the first transfer.

My fertility coach, who is very well connected and has many clients, also confirmed an increase in donor transfers and miscarriages after EZS in Denmark.

I draw and check my conclusions through discussions with those affected, initial consultations with clinics in different countries, websites of clinics and organizations for ECS, advice from reproductive physicians (including with congress results, study information) and sources such as various partly independent studies (abstracts), articles & studies from the ESHRE, statistics from the IVF register, SARS, forum posts from the last few years from urbia, klein-pu..., Eizellspendefreunde (but only to a limited extent, as they are outdated and paid for by clinics) and recently kinderwunschforum.

But now I have to get back to work, otherwise I won't be able to afford any more egg donation anywhere

Nini747 I did not write that miscarriages can be ruled out with a genetic check. I pointed out that genetic testing reduces the risk of miscarriage. This is one of the reasons why they are used.

I did not rule out the possibility that several transfers/changes of donor may be needed in other countries. But yes, it currently seems to be more common in Denmark than reported from other countries.

Hi Ninusch84

yes, important point! The age risk factor plays a role in EZS. And since the age of the donor is sometimes only known at a late stage, this risk factor cannot always be realistically taken into account or ruled out.

The live birth rate < 20% was the final result after deducting 30% miscarriages from the stated pregnancy rate of a clinic and only referred to this one clinic. Sorry, that was misleading. I found that absurdly low even compared to other clinics in DC