NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

World Egg Bank Launches Medical Tourism Program With World's Largest Egg-Donation Fertility Clinic

PHOENIX, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The World Egg Bank (TWEB), an international agency for the donation of human eggs to infertile women, announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with a European fertility clinic to provide American women with in vitro fertilization (IVF) of donated frozen eggs at or less than the cost of staying home for such treatment.

The exclusive partnership is between TWEB and IVI in Alicante, Spain, the world's largest IVF center for frozen donated eggs. It boasts one of Europe's highest success rates and maintains 18 clinics throughout the world.

Egg donation treatment at IVI will cost the same or less than an IVF cycle in America using fresh donor eggs, and about the same as one using frozen donated eggs - including the cost of a vacation in Spain.

"This provides not just an economic alternative for American patients," said Diana Thomas, president and CEO of TWEB, "but is also well suited to intended parents who enjoy foreign travel."

Now a common solution for infertile women who wish to bear children, egg donation can be accomplished with fresh donated eggs, which requires both donor and recipient to coordinate carefully timed procedures in the same city. Frozen eggs, however, can be shipped nationally or internationally and thawed for transfer.

In contrast to American fertility clinics, approximately two-thirds of IVI patients use frozen donated eggs. In contrast, egg freezing accounts for a fraction of American IVF cycles and is still considered experimental by some fertility specialists.

TWEB maintains one of the world's largest egg donor registries, with donor biographies online. More about IVI is available at http://ivi.net/en and http://www.theworldeggbank.com/tweb2/IVI/AboutIVI.aspx

About The World Egg Bank

TWEB was formed in February 2009 as a merger of two companies, X and Y Consulting Inc., an egg donation agency founded in 1996 by Diana Thomas, and Cryo Eggs International, founded in 2004 as the first commercial source of frozen human eggs in the world. In 2005, the first child born of a frozen egg bank was born under the care of two of TWEB's doctors and founders. TWEB's scientific team includes Dr. Jeffrey Boldt and Dr. Michael Tucker, the two scientists that pioneered egg cryopreservation technology.

SOURCE The World Egg Bank