Pregnancy Problems Higher for Egg Recipients - Study

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Women who conceive a child by using a donor egg have a greater risk of developing high blood pressure during pregnancy, South Korean scientists said on Tuesday.

Early miscarriage was also more common, they found, possibly because the body's immune system was reacting against the egg.

The scientists told a meeting that the risk of high blood pressure -- pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) -- was greater for women who were not related to the egg donor.

"It was particularly interesting to see that PIH in pregnancies following oocyte (egg) donation from an unrelated donor showed a 5.4 increase over the control group," said Dr SunHwa Cha, of Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul.

But women who received an egg from a relative had a 2.2 fold increase.

Women are born with a finite number of eggs that diminish as they approach the menopause, which usually occurs around the age of 50.

For patients who have had an early menopause, or premature ovarian failure, donated eggs provide the only opportunity to for them to become mothers.

The researchers, who presented their study at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Copenhagen, said early miscarriage was more common in the group that received donated eggs.

They compared the outcomes in 61 pregnancies with egg donations with pregnancies resulting from standard in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment.