The egg bank continues to grow and now has enough eggs to meet the demand of 150 new patients. Our ability to screen high quality donors has also provided us with a steady stream of new donors, so that at this point it appears that we will have no significant wait for the vast majority of patients seeking egg donation.
The convenience and lower cost of egg banking have many important consequences. One emerging result of egg banking is ‘reproductive tourism’. The term was coined many years ago in Europe to describe patients who travel for their IVF care. Reproductive tourism in Europe for egg donation services is the norm. Only a few countries on the continent allow anonymous, compensated egg donation. Patients in the UK, Germany and Italy, for example, must travel to the Czech Republic, Spain or Belgium to find anonymous donation programs.
Some Americans have traveled to Europe for IVF care in general, and some have traveled for egg donation in particular.. In each of these cases, patients can expect the cost of travel, including two or more weeks overseas, to significantly erode any cost savings they may experience by going to Europe for medical treatment. American patients traveling within the US usually do so to seek higher pregnancy rate irrespective of cost or inconvenience.
It is also very important to note that for egg donation, reproductive tourists must have their cycles coordinated with their donor’s cycle. It is not uncommon to invest heavily in an arrangement such as this only to reach Prague or Valencia and discover that the donor’s response is inadequate or her egg quality is not good.
By using a frozen egg bank, patients need not worry about egg quality or supply. High quality eggs are already banked, and back-up eggs are usually available in the event of unforeseen circumstances. Patients traveling for egg donation can trust that their travel dollars are well spent.
At RBA we are hopeful that patients will come to realize that by using our egg bank they can achieve pregnancy rates the same as fresh cycles (65%), for a total cost that is far less than egg donation charges for fresh cycles. For patients in California or metropolitan New York, charges at RBA are about half of the typical fees for fresh cycles. For cycles involving egg donor brokers in other states, the savings at RBA are even greater.
Even after figuring in the cost of travel, patients coming to Atlanta for egg donation can expect to save thousands of dollars without compromising outcome at all.
Additionally, recipients have the ability to direct their care by choosing their donor from our website data base and scheduling their own cycle according to their needs, not the donor’s availability.
There are several high quality hotels within walking distance of our practice and we have made arrangements with several of them for discounted stays. Atlanta is, and will continue to be, America’s busiest airline hub, so flights are plentiful as well. Several discount airlines and Delta fly here and travelers can be in Atlanta from anywhere in the continental US within 4 hours. Europeans coming to Atlanta can travel non-stop on Delta, Lufthansa, BA, Air France Alitalia, KLM and Sabena from many cities on the Continent. Asian patients can also reach us non-stop from Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul.
If you think travel to Atlanta for egg donation will meet your needs, please call us at 404- 257-1900 or 1-888-722-4483 for more information. You may also e-mail our new patient coordinator at mary.viskup@rba-online.com.
We look forward to hearing from you!