Are older women undergoing ART more likely to use donor eggs or embryos?
As shown in Figures 14–16, eggs produced by women in older age groups form embryos that are less likely to implant and more likely to result in miscarriage if they do implant. As a result, ART using donor eggs is much more common among older women than among younger women. Donor eggs or embryos were used in approximately 12% of all ART cycles carried out in 2006 (16,976 cycles). Figure 44 shows the percentage of ART cycles using donor eggs in 2006 according to the woman’s age. Few women younger than age 39 used donor eggs; however, the percentage of cycles carried out with donor eggs increased sharply starting at age 39. Among women older than age 47, for example, about 89% of all ART cycles used donor eggs.
