What is ROPA method?
Reciprocal IVF, also known as ROPA, is a shared maternity method enabling lesbian couples to feel totally involved in their pregnancy. One partner donates the eggs while the other have the embryos placed into her to carry the pregnancy and give birth.
This method is carried out through In Vitro Fecundation shared between both women and the donor’s semen.
Reciprocal IVF cases
Reciprocal IVF is recommended when both partners are women and:
- Both of them want to take part in the pregnancy.
- They do not want to use a donor’s semen in Artificial Insemination or in case of treatment failure.
Reciprocal IVF treatment
One of the women (usually the youngest one) will undergo hormonal stimulation in order to obtain her eggs. Her partner’s uterus will be prepared to receive the embryos and will become the expectant mother.
The gyneacologist will then perform ultrasound scaning to see the number of eggs growing in each ovary. When their size is considered optimal, they will be extracted. This procedure is undergone in an operating theatre under anaesthesia.
After obtaining the eggs, our assisted reproduction laboratory will process them.
A donor’s semen sample will be needed to inseminated the eggs. This donor is anonymous and is selected based on his physical characteristics as well as his blood type. He undergoes a thorough medical exam to screen for genetical or infectious diseases, a seminogram, a genetic study, an analysis of infectious diseases and a psychological test.
Once the eggs are fertilised, they will be kept in observation at the laboratory to see their embryonic development and establish their potential for implantability, which is the ability of each embryo to give a pregnancy.
The embryo which presents the best development pattern, and, as a consequence, the best potential for implantability will be chosen to be transferred.
The embryonic transfer will be carried out by the gyneacologist under ultrasoud control.
The embryos, which were not transferred, will be stored and cryopreserved for future transfers.
Once the transfer is done, the patient will wait 10 days before doing a blood pregnancy test.
