Egg Banking or Egg Donation

There are many reasons women may consider storing or “banking” healthy eggs from “young” ovaries. The most common are the desire to have viable, healthy eggs awaiting a more ideal time to have a baby, hoping to avoid time pressures to get pregnant. These pressures can be real, created by the ticking of our “biologic clock” as a side effect of cyclic mammalian reproduction in women. Along with never being at risk for unintended pregnancy, men do not suffer significant age-related decline in fertility as do women. Some employer-offered health insurance plans will cover such “egg banking” procedures, and many do not. These financial details are important considerations for most women as costs can be significant and more than one cycle of hyperstimulation may be required.

Some women may offer to donate eggs to assist women who for one reason or another cannot conceive with their own eggs or, due to adverse genetic carrier states, choose not to. These important issues are included in Dr. Pollycove’s areas of knowledge, compassionate guidance and referrals to experts.

Other women face serious considerations of chemotherapy for cancer treatment possibly causing “chemical menopause.” This can occur at any age but is a more common occurrence in women in their late 30’s or 40’s. “Egg Harvesting” prior to chemo is a very important topic to discuss and one with which Dr. Pollycove is deeply familiar. Ample literature exists to document the safety of such “hyperstimulation” hormonal events prior to cancer treatment, even when it necessitates a few weeks delay in surgery or chemo therapy. Cancer advocacy for women includes such pre-treatment discussions, decisions and referrals to specialists are usually within the coverage of most health insurance plans.