HORMONAL STRATEGIES FOR PREPARING THE HUMAN ENDOMETRIUM PRIOR TO OOCYTE DONATION

It has been already 10 years since female gamete surrogacy has become available for women who are not able to count on their own oocytes to become pregnant and give birth.(1-6) It took only a fraction of this time for oocyte donation to establish itself as one of the most rewarding assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs).(3,6) The purpose of this article is to review what 10 years of practicing oocyte donation have taught us on how endometrial receptivity can be controlled by exogenous hormones. When appropriate, I discuss the practical implications that oocyte donation findings may carry for our understanding of endometrial receptivity in other forms of assisted reproduction. Finally, practical considerations are made for selecting the most effective and simplest hormonal replacement regimens for oocyte donation candidates, making special recommendations for those whose ovaries are either inactive or still functioning.