■	CCR Overview
■	CCR Staff
■	Third Party Reproduction Facts

Sperm Donation
Is the most common form of third-party reproduction. Sperm donation has been available for over 100 years. Only within the last 20 years has it been complicated by the risk of HIV transmission. A sperm donor produces a sperm sample, which is frozen and quarantined for at least six months until the donor can be retested for HIV. The sperm can, once released from quarantine, be used for insemination, which is a fairly simple office procedure.

 

Egg Donation
Became a feasible therapy with the introduction of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) in 1978. Egg donation is a more complicated form of third-party reproduction. Unlike the sperm donor, the egg donor must take injectable medications to produce multiple eggs (superovulation or controlled ovarian hyperstimulation). The use of these drugs must be monitored very carefully to avoid overstimulating the egg donor. The eggs are retrieved with an ultrasound guided transvaginal outpatient surgical procedure that requires mild anesthesia. The eggs are then fertilized, and the resulting embryos are transferred to the uterus of the recipient where they may implant and result in pregnancy.

 

Surrogacy
Is a form of collaborative reproduction in which a woman (surrogate) donates both her egg and her uterus (traditional surrogacy) or only her uterus (gestational surrogacy) to an infertile person or couple. The surrogate carries the pregnancy and gives birth to an infant who is adopted by the recipient person or couple. Traditional surrogacy is a therapy in which a woman is inseminated with the intended father’s sperm and after delivery the surrogate gives the baby to the intended parents who then adopt it. Gestational surrogacy is a far more common form of surrogacy. In this form of therapy the intended mother undergoes ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval. These eggs are fertilized using the intended father’s semen. The resulting embryos are transferred to the uterus of the gestational surrogate where the pregnancy develops. Once delivered, the surrogate then gives the baby to the intended parents (the genetic parents) who adopt it.

 

Embryo Donation
Is a procedure in which embryos created by one infertile couple are donated to another couple and implanted in the uterus of the intended mother. Usually the embryos have been frozen because the donating couple did not transfer all of the embryos that were created in a previous IVF cycle. Most commonly the original couple no longer desires the donated embryos because they have been able to complete their family in that earlier IVF cycle.