Ova bank

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

An ova bank, or cryobank, or egg cell bank is a facility that collects and stores human ova, mainly from ova donors, primarily for the purpose of achieving pregnancies of either the donor, at a later time (i.e. to overcome issues of infertility), or through third party reproduction, notably by artificial insemination. Ova donated in this way are known as donor ova.

General

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There are currently very few ova banks in existence.[1][2][3]

Generally, the main purpose of storing ova, at present, is to overcome infertility which may arise at a later age, or due to a disease. The ova are generally collected between 31 and 35 years of age.[4]

The procedure of collecting ova may or may not[5] include ovarian hyperstimulation.[6]

It can be expected however that ova collection will become more important in the future, i.e. for third party reproduction, and/or for producing stem cells, i.e. from unfertilized eggs (oocytes).[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Centre for Reproductive Medicine of UZ Brussel having an ova bank
  2. ^ The Bandra-based Lilavati Hospital having an ova bank
  3. ^ Renji Hospital, Shanghai having an ova bank
  4. ^ Age of woman when collecting ova
  5. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-08-13. Retrieved 2012-10-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. ^ Procedure of collecting ova
  7. ^ Stem cell production from oocytes