Donors & Surrogacy
Solutions
For some patients and couples, the use of donor solutions or a gestational carrier can be the best options to achieve their family dreams. These approaches can be very successful: the use of donor eggs leads to above 50% of pregnancy success for females, while donor sperm can also be a very effective solution for situations where male factor infertility is leading to challenges in conceiving.
Explore Donor & Surrogacy Solutions
Egg donation is a solution for women who are unable to conceive using their own eggs, for instance those experiencing poor ovarian reserve, having had their ovaries removed, or experiencing early menopause. It can also be used in situations where the female patient is carrying a serious and inheritable genetic disease.
The treatment involves using the eggs of a third-party, who undergoes ovarian stimulation so that they produce eggs specifically intended to be fertilized. There are two major types of situations for egg donations: those where the donor is known, and those where they are anonymous.
For known donors, the egg donor will need to meet Health Canada’s guidelines and screen for all foreseeable medical and psychological conditions.
Anonymous donor frozen eggs may also be purchased from the USA and shipped to Conceptia. We receive anonymous donor eggs from Can-Am Cryoservices, and the donors are rigorously tested.
If you are using donor eggs, you will undergo hormonal treatment in order to prepare your uterus for an embryo transfer.
Donor insemination may be considered in cases where the male patient presents major sperm abnormalities, when there are infertility problems following cancer treatments, and in cases of infectious or hereditary genetic diseases. It is also often used by single patients and same-sex female couples.
The sperm used for insemination is collected from a donor through a sperm bank that has been authorized and inspected by Health Canada. Donors undergo a rigorous testing process before being accepted. Prior to insemination, you will meet with our specialists to go over the process, and address any questions or concerns you may have.
There are currently four distributors in Canada that are authorized by Health Canada:
Please note that all specimens must be received at least a week before the insemination date and that unwashed sperm is preferrable (but not obligatory).
A surrogate or gestational carrier can be used by patients who are not able to carry their own child. In this situation, another female carries the baby, but without using her own eggs, so she is not biologically related to the baby.
Once a potential gestational carrier has been identified, they will undergo extensive screening to ensure that they are healthy and deemed ready for this process. A legal procedure then begins to provide protection for both parties.
To find out more about the general laws of surrogacy in Canada, we encourage you to consult the website of the Government of Canada, in particular the Assisted Human Reproduction Act of 2004 and Prohibitions related to Surrogacy.