In many cases, couples struggling with infertility undergo a series of interventions before they are faced with the prospect of a woman's own eggs failing to get pregnant. Among other things, early ovarian failure, ovarian depletion or genetic disease may be the reason why doctors recommend egg donation treatment. However, there may be obstacles to this in Hungary. Under Hungarian law, only a female relative of the couple can donate eggs to the couple. But what happens if they don't have this option?
Fortunately, the legal regulation of egg donation programmes in some European countries is different. In the Czech Republic, egg donation is voluntary and anonymous, and couples who need this help can use special donor programmes at the IVF clinics. The egg donation process is legal and strictly regulated in the Czech Republic. The Unica Clinics have the largest database of young and healthy donors, so couples can start their egg donation fombicide treatment without waiting. This is one of the reasons why more and more Hungarian patients are coming to the Unica Clinics in Brno and Prague.
One of our former patients, Anikó, visited the Unica Clinic in Brno and shared her experiences on Jakupcsek night TV. Did she miss it? Don't worry. In this article we present you the whole interview.
She started her infertility treatment at a private clinic, but after two failed attempts she was soon on her way to the Czech Republic. Although the first time she didn't get pregnant, thanks to an egg donation, Anikó Buzál now has a 5-year-old daughter.
Jakupcsek Gabriella. Tell us, did you go to the Czech Republic too? I always say that it's not a question of sending everyone to the Czech Republic, but of what opportunities there are here and what opportunities there are elsewhere, and of course it's also a question of money, determination, ethics and many other things. Who first came up with the idea that you would take on the responsibility of child donation. Did you look into it, did you discuss it? Was it suggested at home?
Anikó Buzál: It was a process, so when I started at home, I thought I would try it, I didn't think it would fail. It's a shocking experience when it fails and then you start thinking. When the second failure comes, then comes the third, and you wonder how long it's worth continuing, and you have to look at the financial possibilities, and it's an emotional rollercoaster ride, you have hope, and then you have disappointments, so you wonder how long it's worth trying. Everyone reaches this point at a different point, but for me it was after the third one that I started to look for options and possibilities, and that's how the possibility of egg donation came up. And that's why I went to the Czech Republic.
JG: It's legal there, I might add, whereas in Hungary it's not allowed.
BA: Yes, in Hungary it is allowed if the couple, either the woman or the man, has a female relative who is under 35 and has already had a child.
JG: A brother or sister, perhaps?
BA: Yes, either a brother, a cousin, so in the family.
JG: So it can only be donated within the family?
BA: Yes. In the Czech Republic, on the other hand, donation is anonymous, we don't know much about the donors, there is no possibility of contacting them later on, so it is allowed and regulated by law. Donors are compensated.
JG: Is that paid by the state or by the clinics?
BA: The clinics pay.
JG: So the clinic itself actually procures the eggs, it funds it and it passes it on? So it works like a bank?
BA: Not exactly like a sperm bank, because the way it works there is that the man delivers the sperm and it's, like in a bank, it's in there, but for women it's a more complicated process and it's always, I mean it's usually done in a fresh way.
JG: So it has to be coordinated in time?
BA: Yes, they synchronize the donor and the patient, usually.
JG: Do they match you with the donor?
BA: Yes, they can give you an external description, so we give you our external description, they can send you a photograph and from that they try to select the donor that best matches. We can't see a photograph of the donors, but of course they can, and they choose a donor that looks as much like the patient as possible in terms of hair colour, eye colour, body type.
JG: Right from the first transplant, were you successful?
BA: Yes, I was successful right from the first one.
JG: So in your case the problem was with the egg?
BA: Yes, obviously. When I went to Brno for a consultation, I asked the doctor outside what he thought the chances were with my own egg and he said that the chances were very, very low, 2-3%. Whereas with egg donation it is around 60%, so much higher.
JG: That's a huge difference though, and 60 is not 100...
BA: That's right, unfortunately not everybody gets it the first time or the second time, you have to be prepared for that.
JG: Can the cost of this be compared with a similar procedure in Hungary?
BA: It starts at around 5000 Euros, the difference between the two treatments, own and donor eggs, is the amount of drugs and their cost. In the own egg treatment there is stimulation and the injections are very expensive. So stimulation is a cheaper treatment, but the medicine that we have to buy is about 100,000 HUF per injection pen, and we need more of that in one treatment, so overall it is almost the same price as the egg donation treatment. What is more expensive, however, is the medication, which only requires tablets.
JG: In that case, do YOU have to finance the cost of the donor as well?
BA: The donor cost is built into the price of the treatment.
JG: But is it a fixed price?
BA: Yes, it is a fixed price, there are package prices, you know in advance how much you will pay at the end, there are no hidden costs.
JG: Thank you very much and congratulations.
