What the Latest IVF Research Means for Egg Donation and Surrogacy

A new FDA-authorized clinical trial launched in 2025 could cut the egg donation process from two weeks of daily hormone injections down to just two or three days. At the same time, a major European study is challenging one of IVF's most common defaults. Here is what the latest research means for families exploring surrogacy today.

Three studies published in spring 2025 each address a different part of the IVF process — and together, they suggest the field is moving toward treatments that are gentler on the body and more precise in their outcomes. Two describe technologies still in clinical trials. One describes findings already influencing how some clinicians approach fertilization decisions.

At Delivering Dreams, we follow the science so that our clients can ask better questions, understand their options, and feel confident that the clinics we work with are not standing still.

The Hardest Part of Egg Donation Is Getting Easier — Slowly

For a donor, the most physically demanding part of the process is ovarian stimulation: typically 12 to 14 days of daily hormone injections before egg retrieval. For the intended mother in an own-egg program, the experience is similar.

It is manageable. It is also, for some women, genuinely difficult — physically and emotionally. The research community has been working on this for years.

In spring 2025, two separate lines of research reached notable milestones. Together, they describe a future in which the stimulation window could be compressed dramatically — and in which the selection of the best embryos for transfer may be guided by machine learning rather than visual assessment alone.

Neither is standard practice yet. But both are moving through formal clinical trials, and families who start their surrogacy journey today may find that these options exist in a more accessible form by the time they consider additional cycles.

What IVM Research Could Mean for Egg Donors: Fewer Injections, Less Time

In vitro maturation — IVM — is a technique in which eggs are retrieved from the ovaries before they are fully mature, then complete their maturation in a laboratory setting rather than inside the body. The core appeal is straightforward: if eggs can mature in the lab, the donor does not need extended hormonal stimulation to produce them.

A US biotechnology company called Gameto has developed a version of this approach called Fertilo. Their system uses lab-grown ovarian support cells — derived from induced pluripotent stem cells — to provide the biological environment eggs need to mature outside the body. The hormone window may be reduced from roughly 12 to 14 days down to just 2 to 3 days.

In December 2024, the first baby was born using this system, in Peru. In early 2025, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized the first US Phase 3 clinical trial of this technology — registered on ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT06858111. Known as the FIRST trial, it will enroll approximately 500 participants across 15 US clinical sites.

This is genuinely promising. Phase 3 trials are the final confirmation stage before a technology can enter routine clinical practice — not approval itself, but the rigorous process that leads to it.

What this means for egg donation today: Standard stimulation protocols remain in place. What IVM research suggests is that the experience for egg donors may improve meaningfully over the next several years — shorter, less physically demanding, and potentially more accessible. That is worth knowing, even if it does not change your immediate path.

How AI May Change the Way Clinics Guide Families Through IVF

One of the most consistent sources of stress for families entering IVF is uncertainty about outcomes. National success rate statistics exist — in the US, the SART registry publishes clinic-level data — but population-level averages often do not reflect what is true for a specific patient with a specific profile.

A study published in Nature Communications on April 17, 2025 examined whether machine-learning models trained on data from individual clinics could predict live birth probabilities more accurately than the national SART model. The study analyzed 4,635 first IVF cycles across six clinics.

The clinic-specific AI models significantly outperformed the national model — particularly in identifying patients with a 50 percent or higher probability of a live birth. A separate 2025 study introduced a federated learning approach that allows AI models to learn from embryo time-lapse videos across multiple centers without any patient data leaving those facilities, addressing legitimate privacy concerns in reproductive medicine.

What this means today: These models are research outputs, not tools available at most clinics right now. What they signal is a meaningful direction: toward individualized, data-driven counseling rather than population-level averages. As these models are validated and adopted, families may gain far more precise information about their specific situation at the start of a program.

The ICSI Question: What a Major Study Found

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection — ICSI — involves injecting a single sperm directly into an egg. It was developed for cases of severe male infertility, where conventional fertilization is unlikely to succeed. Over time, its use has expanded significantly and it has become the default method in many IVF programs globally, including cases without an identified sperm quality issue.

A large randomized controlled trial published in Nature Medicine on April 11, 2025 examined whether this routine use is justified. The Danish multicenter study enrolled 1,064 couples without severe male factor infertility and randomized them to either conventional IVF or ICSI.

The results showed no statistically significant difference in live birth rates after the first embryo transfer: 30.9 percent for the conventional IVF group versus 27.1 percent for the ICSI group. Cumulative live birth rates were similarly comparable — 43.2 percent versus 39.8 percent respectively.

The study concluded that for couples without a significant sperm quality issue, routine ICSI offers no demonstrated benefit over conventional IVF.

This does not mean ICSI is the wrong choice across the board. When sperm parameters are compromised, when previous fertilization has failed, or when frozen sperm is used, it remains an appropriate and well-supported technique. The study's contribution is to the question of routine use — whether ICSI should be the automatic default regardless of the clinical picture.

If you are planning an IVF cycle as part of your surrogacy program, it is reasonable to ask your reproductive specialist why a specific fertilization approach is recommended for your case. A good clinical team will welcome the question.

What Varies by Country and Clinic

Regulatory approvals and clinical practice standards vary by country. Consult a qualified reproductive specialist for guidance specific to your situation.

Before You Start a Donor Egg Program: A Practical Checklist

The steps below reflect the typical sequence for a donor egg surrogacy program at Delivering Dreams. Use this as an orientation — not a guarantee of timing, since some stages depend on biological cycles that cannot be scheduled in advance.

• Step 1 — Documentation (1–4 weeks): Passport, marriage certificate, Power of Attorney, and a doctor's letter confirming medical need for surrogacy — all notarized and apostilled, sent to Ukraine via DHL.
• Step 2 — Biomaterial shipping (2–4 weeks, parallel with Step 1): Sperm shipped to Ukraine via licensed carrier, GPS-tracked and temperature-controlled. Must arrive before donor stimulation can begin.
• Step 3 — Donor matching (2–4 weeks from sperm arrival): Fully screened donor profiles presented one or two at a time. Decision window is a few days — fresh donors cannot wait.
• Step 4 — Donor stimulation and egg retrieval (12–14 days): Standard hormonal protocol. The number of eggs retrieved varies by donor response; your specialist will advise what to expect based on your specific cycle.
• Step 5 — IVF and embryo development (5–6 days): Fertilization; blastocyst development confirmed by Day 5–6. Not all fertilized eggs develop to viable blastocysts — the number depends on egg and sperm quality, and your embryologist will review the results with you.
• Step 6 — PGD chromosomal testing (minimum 21 business days): All 24 chromosomes screened by NGS on up to 8 embryos. Results determine which embryos are viable for transfer.
• Step 7 — Surrogate matching and embryo transfer (days to weeks after PGD): SwiftMatch™ surrogate selected; long protocol begins; transfer window opens 19–22 days after protocol start.
• Step 8 — Pregnancy and birth (~39 weeks from transfer): Bi-weekly clinic visits minimum; surrogate relocates near maternity hospital from Week 32; birth in Kyiv or Lviv.

Use our surrogacy cost calculator to see a full program breakdown, and our timeline estimator to map out a realistic sequence from your starting point to birth.

How Delivering Dreams Selects and Works With Partner Clinics

At Delivering Dreams, we coordinate IVF and surrogacy programs in Ukraine, with births in Kyiv or Lviv depending on your preference and circumstances. The clinics we work with are selected for their clinical standards, experience with international intended parents, and commitment to staying current with evidence-based practice.

We do not make medical decisions on behalf of our clients — those belong to your reproductive specialists. What we do is coordinate the full process: biomaterial logistics, surrogate matching, pregnancy monitoring, and end-to-end documentation support from signing to exit.

For families from Germany, our legal team has direct experience supporting clients through every stage — from the surrogacy agreement in Ukraine through to parenthood documentation accepted by German authorities. Legal coordination is handled on your behalf throughout.

When you ask us about a specific technology — whether it is available at your clinic, whether it is appropriate for your case, whether it is worth discussing with your specialist — we will give you a straight answer, including when the honest answer is "not yet."

• Births in Kyiv or Lviv; VIP private maternity room included in all programs
• Dedicated coordinator with English-language updates at every appointment
• Dream Lock Pricing™: surrogate compensation and standard medical costs are fixed — if they increase, Delivering Dreams covers the difference
• Pregnancy Process Protection™: if a pregnancy is lost, payments restart at heartbeat detection — not from the beginning
• Full Protection Coverage™ available for up to $25,000 in complication coverage ($6,900)
• PGD-24 (NGS chromosomal screening) included in all Donor and Own Oocytes programs
• Use our cost calculator to understand what a program may look like for your situation