What are the medical tests performed before egg donation?

Egg donation is conducted under a team of medical professionals including medical doctor with a background of reproductive specialist, geneticists, genetic counselor, general physician, psychological counselor. Donor egg coordinators take the responsibility to coordinate with medical team and fix the date of medical tests according to the availability of the egg donor.

Women who decide to donate their eggs have undergone a medical evaluation, which include detail medical history of individual and family along with other required information to meet the selective standard. At the initial stage medical team give information to the egg donor about all the detail procedures of screening tests. This information also include understanding of egg donation process, in respect of time, physical implication, involved medical risks associated with the procedure, logistic details. This information session helps egg donor to aware about the whole egg donation process. The rigorous medical tests and psychological counseling ensure the eligibility of an woman as an egg donor. Psychological evaluation helps to assess the mental health condition and emotional willingness to become an egg donor. The one of the primary reason to conduct the medical tests is to avoid significant jeopardize associated with pregnancy as well as donor egg health.

Identification and correction of any abnormality is the primary aim of medical screening of the egg donor, so that no any all the steps of IVF including fertilization, implantation and pregnancy can be conducted smoothly. Following standard medical screening tests are conducted

Medical Screening

  • General Health Medical Testing
  • Physical Examination
  • Fertility assessment including endocrinal (hormonal) testing and examination of the ovaries through ultrasound
  • Drug screening test through urine evaluation
  • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory / Personality Assessment Inventory or any other comparable test
  • Psychological assessment and counseling

Microbial Infection Disease Testing:

  • Hepatitis B
  • Hepatitis C
  • HIV 1, 2 & 0
  • Gonorrhea& Chlamydia
  • Syphilis
  • West Nile virus (WNV)
  • ZIKA viral infection screening

Genetic Testing:

  • Karyotype (Full Chromosome Analysis)
  • Fragile X
  • Cystic Fibrosis
  • Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)
  • Bloom Syndrome
  • ABCC8-Related Hyperinsulinism
  • Tay Sachs Disease
  • Sickle Cell Disease
  • Alpha thalassemia
  • Beta Thalassemia
  • Fanconi Anemia Type C
  • Canavan Disease
  • Familial Dysautonomia
  • Glycogen Storage Disease Type 1a
  • Hb Beta Chain-Related Hemoglobinopathy
  • Hexosaminidase A Deficiency
  • Joubert Syndrome 2
  • NEB-Related Nemaline Myopathy
  • Maple Syrup Urine Disease Type 1B & type 3
  • Mucolipidosis IV
  • Gaucher Disease
  • Tay Sachs Enzyme Sequencing
  • Niemann-Pick Disease
  • Usher Syndrome Type 1F & Type 3
  • Lipoamide Dehydrogenase Deficiency
  • Walker-Warburg Syndrome

Psychological screening

Psychological screening is very important to reduce the risk of emotional harm. Psychological screening is conducted to identify emotional problems, evaluation of donor motivations, and validate that egg donor has a complete understanding of the physical, psychological, and legal risks associated with egg donation. In some cases, family members, friends or partner of the potential egg donor have also interviewed for assessing the social support along with psychological tests already mentioned in earlier section including MMPI. In case of psychological screening identifies presence of psychiatric disorder, inappropriate drive for egg donation, a disorganized lifestyle, or impractical expectations from the donation process, then the medical team reject the woman from egg donation. Even finding of history of psychiatric medication use, depression, social introversion, counseling, sexual abuse, or miscarriage are also eliminate the woman from a donor program.

Screening Related Ethical Considerations

Confidentiality need to be maintained during screening tests. Detail description of all the tests which will perform under medical, psychological screening process need to describe elaborately along with risk factors if any. Singing of an informed consent before undergoing any tests or interviews is necessary to ensure the understanding of screening procedure and egg donation process related involved risks and discomfort. A sufficient break is also given to the potential donor for decision making after counseling the egg donation risks and procedures.

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