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21 July 2003

Dear ­­_______

Egg Giving and Egg Sharing

Egg Giving
The HFEA is receiving a number of enquiries and expressions of concern from patients and licensed centres over the arrangement known as egg giving. The purpose of this letter is to clarify the HFEA's position on egg giving, to inform licensed centres of action the HFEA intends to take to review this practice and to request information from licensed centres undertaking any form of egg giving.

Egg giving is an arrangement whereby a woman seeking IVF treatment goes through one cycle in which all the eggs recovered are donated to a second woman, or occasionally more than one woman, followed by one or more further cycles of IVF for their own treatment at reduced cost.

The HFEA has never authorised or approved egg giving. We will be undertaking a review of gamete donation, and an assessment of egg giving will form the first part of this wider review. Any guidance to clinics on egg giving produced as a consequence, will be completed and made available by the end of 2003. The wider review of gamete donation will continue into 2004.

In the meantime, please could any centres currently operating an egg giving arrangement submit all relevant protocols (see below) to the HFEA to reach us by no later than 5pm on Wednesday 6th August 2003. In line with current requirements on egg sharing schemes, any centres planning to establish egg giving arrangements before the outcome of the HFEA review, should submit their egg giving documentation to the Authority for review before the commencement of treatment under this arrangement.   This information will assist us in determining the suitability of current practice.

The egg giving documentation supplied to HFEA should include: 

• clinical/scientific and nursing protocols;
• information provided to patients, including consent agreement forms;
• a description of the counselling provided to patients;
• a description of the clinics' policy if in any cycle the number of eggs provided by the egg giver is deficient in some way (for example where the patient produces too few eggs for her own treatment) together with the information provided to patients that addresses this, and other, risks, including hyperstimulation.
• Clinics should also inform the HFEA how many individual patients have participated in egg giving arrangements to date and, where known, how many are scheduled in future.

Although egg giving is not a separately licensable activity and there are currently no specific HFEA guidelines covering such arrangements, clinics are reminded that, in operating such schemes, they must comply with the requirements of the HF& E Act 1990 and the Code of Practice. In particular, centres must ensure that suitable practices are used and that the interests of patients are protected at all times.

Furthermore, whilst licensed clinics are free to set their own charges for the treatment services they provide they must comply with Directions on giving and receiving money or other benefits in respect of any supply of gametes or embryos contained in General Direction D.1998/1.

Egg sharing

The Authority is aware that many centres have an egg sharing scheme in which one egg provider and one recipient share the eggs recovered from the provider in a single cycle. The HFEA's guidance for egg sharing arrangements state that where there are fewer eggs collected than the minimum needed for sharing the egg provider should be given the option of using all the eggs at no additional cost to her. However, the Authority is aware that some centres have agreements whereby the egg provider can choose to give all eggs collected during a cycle to the recipient. Therefore, all centres are asked to submit information to the HFEA on the number of patients who choose this option.

All documentation should be sent to Ms Jo Christie at the HFEA, Paxton House, 30 Artillery Lane, London E1 7LS.

If you have any queries about the information that you should submit please contact Ms Jo Christie on 020 7375 3017. However, if you have other queries about this letter please contact Dr Chris O'Toole by phone on 020 7539 3324 or by e-mail at chris.otoole@hfea.gov.uk.

Yours faithfully,

Suzi Leather
Chair

Page last updated: 17 August 2012

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