Receipt of partner’s eggs (ROPA)

Receipt of partner’s eggs (ROPE) is a treatment for lesbian couples in which one of the patients receives ovarian stimulation to obtain their eggs and to create embryos with donor sperm. Once we have the embryos, we transfer them to the other patient. In this way, both patients take part in the process and the future newborn has a genetic mother and a biological mother.

How does the treatment work?

Study and analysis of your medical profile. Gynaecological exploration with an ultrasound. Hormonal analysis, if required.

We search for a donor of sperm with similarity to the patient who will receive the embryos. The donor will be studied psychologically, medically and also genetically. We test the donor and you for the 3.200 most important recessive genetic diseases, and also to the patient who will perform the ovarian stimulation to see if they are compatible.

The donor is 100% anonymous and has no rights or duties to the offspring obtained with his sperm.

You will inject yourself with hormones for 15 days to help grow the els follicles. Each follicule will contain 1 egg.

Once most of your follicles have grown correctly, we will perfom the retrieval to aspirate them before they naturally ovulate and end up in the Fallopian tube.The retrieval is done in our operating room under sedation. You can leave the clinic on your own 2 hours later. Meanwhile, your eggs will be washed in our laboratory and prepared for fertilization.

Once the eggs are ready, the semen of donor is prepared and washed to select the best spermatozoa. We will inject one spermatozoa into each egg using the ICSI technique. You will be able to see how we do it live via a camera attached to the microscope.

Having injected one spermatozoa into each egg, we will put them in a nutrient-rich mediumand leave them in an incubator simulating the conditions naturally found inside the womb. This incubator has a camera that allows us to take a photo of the egg every 5 minutes so we can see the division of the eggs, that are now embryos, without disturbing the culture conditions.

We can leave the embryos in the incubator for up to 5 days, until they reach the blastocyte stage, which is when they have the highest reproductive potential. That will depend on each patient, especially on the number of embryos obtained. If there are not a lot of embryos we can also cultivate them for 2 or 3 days.

Once we have cultivated the embryos, they are all frozen for later transfer, once the recipient patient is ready. At some cases, it will be also possible to transfer the embryos directly to the receptor patient.

After freezing the embryos, and knowing how many there are and their characteristics, it is now time for you, as the patient, to prepare to receive them under the best possible conditions. To do this, you must take hormones to prepare the endometrium, or your cycle can be monitored to see the ideal moment for transferring the embryos. If you want, you can schedule the transfer for the day that best suits you.

Whether with fresh or frozen embryos, the transfer is the placement of the embryos inside your womb. We do it in our operating theatre, without sedation, and you can leave the clinic on your own 30 minutes later. Legally speaking, we can transfer up to 3 embryos but, case per case, we will determine the best option to obtain the best results but avoiding twin pregnancies. Our recommendation, that is a worldwide trend, is to transfer a single-embryo.

The frozen embryos that have not been used will be frozen for future use. The freezing process has no extra cost for you. We will keep them for two years for free, and after this period, an annual fee will be charged.

What makes FIV Obradors different?

  • Blastocyst.Culture of the embryo up to day +5 of life enables a better selection of obtained embryos to increase the chances of success. At no extra cost.
     
  • Uninterrupted embryo culture. Using state-of-the-art incubators with an integrated Time-Lapse system at no extra cost to the patient. These incubators allow the development of the embryos to be monitored without removing them from the incubator, thanks to the photographs taken by a small camera incorporated in it. This enables the development of the embryo to be maximized and, furthermore, for us to make a film of the first days of life of the embryo, which the patient will receive at no extra cost.
     
  • Automatic identification system of the biological samples (sperm, eggs and embryos)(IVFWitness). This system uses radio frequency micro-chips that avoid samples from different patients being mixedup and, therefore, it eliminates the risk of fatal human errors. It is included in all treatments. This technology is not mandatory in Spain and can only be found in three other IVF clinics in the country.
     
  • Comprehensive donor selection We have a comprehensive donor selection protocol that chooses healthy donors who are free of the 3.200 most important recessive genetic diseases.