HFEA to review egg giving
22 July 2003
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has announced it is undertaking a review of the egg donation arrangement known as egg giving. The purpose of the review will be to establish under which conditions egg giving is suitable practice and provide guidance to clinics to ensure patients' interests are protected.
Suzi Leather, Chair of the HFEA said:
"We are receiving a growing number of enquiries from patients and licensed clinics regarding egg giving arrangements. Whilst we do not want to limit the treatment choices available to women it is important that with any form of egg donation the women involved are given all the information needed to make informed decisions about their treatment and this includes details of any risks involved."
As part of the review clinics currently offering an egg giving arrangement will have to submit details of their procedures to the HFEA. The outcome of the egg giving investigation, plus any guidance issued to clinics on egg giving, will be completed and made available by the end of 2003.
Notes to editors
Egg giving is an arrangement where a woman seeking IVF treatment goes through one cycle of treatment in which her eggs are recovered and then donated. The woman then goes on to have another cycle of IVF for their own treatment at a reduced cost.
Egg sharing differs from egg giving in that in an egg sharing arrangement a woman seeking IVF treatment undergoes one cycle of treatment in which her eggs are recovered. She uses a proportion of these eggs in her own treatment and donates the remaining eggs to another woman. The woman donating her eggs receives a reduction in the cost of her treatment. The HFEA produced guidelines on the practice of egg sharing in December 1998
The HFEA was set up in August 1991 as part of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. The HFEA's principal tasks are to license and monitor clinics that carry out in vitro fertilisation (IVF), donor insemination (DI) and human embryo research. The HFEA also regulates the storage of gametes (eggs and sperm) and embryos.
Page last updated: 12 March 2009