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 t ime for oocyte donation to establish itself as one of the most rewardi ng 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 exogeno us hormones. When appropriate, I discuss the practical implications th at oocyte donation findings may carry for our understanding of endomet rial receptivity in other forms of assisted reproduction. Finally, pra ctical considerations are made for selecting the most effective and si mplest hormonal replacement regimens for oocyte donation candidates, m aking special recommendations for those whose ovaries are either inact ive or still functioning.