Hi, how are you? We’ve been getting a lot of questions on Facebook since last month about a specific technique called the R.O.P.A. technique. Specifically: This diagram here is fake! It’s not used like that, so we’re going to tell you what it’s like and what you should do in the shared IVF technique. Remember that knowledge is success.

Look carefully, the nice or interesting part of the R.O.P.A. technique is that the genetic load of a couple, which is the egg, once fertilized, not as the diagram says, putting the egg in the uterus of the other couple and the baby comes out, it doesn’t work like that. We take the egg from the couple, fertilize it with donor semen and then that embryo is transferred into the uterus of the other partner, in such a way that both are participants, one with the genetic load and the other couple carrying the gestation and between both, obviously, taking care of the pregnancy that the embryo of the two surrogate mothers carries.

This explanation is because many couples have come to us and many couples have written to us saying: “The diagram says that my egg can be placed in my partner’s uterus and with that we can generate the baby,” and the idea of ​​this is to inform them that this is not possible, the truth is that we need an egg but we need sperm to generate an embryo and be able to put it in the other pregnant couple. So please, our idea is to inform them, so that they are well informed and that they go to an assisted reproduction center to do their R.O.P.A. technique but knowing that the egg has to be fertilized with a sperm bank necessarily to generate an embryo and then put it in the uterus of the pregnant couple.

We would love to really be able to take out the egg, fertilize it without the need for sperm and then put it in the uterus to generate a baby but that is not being done or does not currently exist. The idea of ​​the R.O.P.A. technique is that the two women who are a couple participate in the event of generating the baby and developing the gestation, then one will carry the genetic load and the other will be the gestational mother.

We have to remember that we have had many female couples who want the R.O.P.A. technique. The R.O.P.A. technique is great for both women to participate, however, there is a technique called insemination with banked sperm where only one woman participates and in general it is usually the younger one.

Why am I explaining this to you? Because we have had couples but in one, one is over 40 years old and the other is 30, but the one who is 30 was the one who wanted to be the gestating uterus, so in these specific situations, in the age of the woman who wants to provide the eggs, she is already a slightly older woman and where the possibilities with an in vitro technique are less. We always explain to them that it might be worth it for them to talk about it and discuss it and the 30-year-old woman, with insemination with banked sperm and her eggs, can be the one who provides the eggs but also the surrogate.

Why will we always need a sperm bank… Don’t get the idea that the egg and my uterus and therefore I don’t need a male genetic load, here it is always important that the semen is going to be present in an insemination technique with semen bank or in a R.O.P.A. technique.

The great advantage of couples who want the R.O.P.A. technique selecting the semen is that they themselves decide between the two of them which semen they want, that is, which donor they want and then we can see secondary characteristics: Height, skin color, eye color, blood type, but that does not guarantee that the baby will come out the way you chose.

On many occasions, patients tell us, “I was told somewhere else that they guaranteed that my baby would have blue eyes,” and even though the donor catalog exists and you choose a donor who is over 1.90, white, with blue eyes… It does not guarantee that you will have a baby with those characteristics. It is very close, but the best dark-skinned baby could turn out because you have to remember that the genetic load of your partner’s egg will also interfere with or influence that embryonic development and those secondary characteristics of the baby.

So, another question is: Do both of them have to come to the consultation? Yes, they both have to have tests done too, because we have to remember that a couple, a woman, is going to be the one whose ovaries are stimulated to produce eggs, and due to both national and international regulations, that woman has to be tested for at least hepatitis B, hepatitis C, AIDS, and syphilis, which are the serologies, and ideally, if you ask me, the woman who is going to donate the eggs is under 35 or 37 years old, or is the youngest, and the other couple, who is going to be the recipient, who is going to be the surrogate, then she also has to have tests for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, AIDS, and syphilis, but mainly, preferably they are not older than 45 years old, and they should not have previous congenital diseases such as diabetes or hypertension. Why? So that her pregnancy is as healthy as possible. In any case, remember that at Creafam we will take care of your pregnancy throughout the entire process from fertilization and implantation to birth.