The Impact of State Mandated Financial Coverage for Donor Egg In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Cycles on Choosing Fresh Eggs from Infertile Donor vs. Paid Donors vs. Frozen Egg Banks

We sought to determine if using infertile oocyte donors donating only half of the eggs collected to recipients, had comparable live delivery rates following fresh and frozen embryo transfer (ET) when compared to oocytes obtained from compensated donors with a single recipient, compensated donors split between two recipients, or an oocyte bank. A retrospective review of 1,361 in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) cycles comparing live delivery rates after fresh ET and live delivery rates per retrieval by donor oocyte source was performed. Live delivery rates per fresh ET showed no significant difference between the four-oocyte sources. However, using an infertile donor had a statistically significant increase in live delivery rate per retrieval when compared to using a compensated donor split between two recipients or an oocyte bank. There was a 15% decrease in live delivery rate per retrieval when using an infertile donor compared to a compensated donor with a single recipient. Financial burden of infertility services has been a long-standing barrier to infertility treatment access. Sharing oocytes with an infertile donor can have financial advantage without significant sacrifice of success rates. It is especially cost saving for recipients in mandated states who actually are financially reimbursed for the majority of the cost of the IVF cycle.