Many couples who want to have children find it difficult or impossible to conceive. Using special techniques, some couples can conceive using their own eggs and sperm. Others must use sperm donated from another man. More recently, egg donation has allowed some women, whose ovaries do not produce enough healthy eggs, to become pregnant using donated eggs.

You may be reading this guidebook because you answered an ad for egg donors or were asked by a friend or relative to consider becoming a donor. If so, you need to learn all you can about the process and think seriously about what it involves before you start. Becoming a donor is a very important decision.

This guidebook provides prospective egg donors with unbiased information. It suggests issues for you to consider and questions to ask before deciding whether or not to become a donor.

Who Can Become An Egg Donor?

Not all women can donate eggs. Programs vary in the qualities they prefer, but some criteria are fairly standard. Certain rules are set for legal reasons. Other policies are designed to increase the chance that a pregnancy will result and that the process will be safe for both donor and recipient.

Commonly, egg donors must be a certain age, usually 21, and be no more than 35. The lower limit ensures that a woman can legally enter into a contract. The upper limit reflects the fact that older women respond less well to fertility drugs. There is also a chance that an older woman's eggs will be abnormal, making pregnancy less likely or increasing the risk of a birth defect.

Some programs prefer to use donors who have already given birth or successfully donated eggs. It is believed that they are more likely to be fertile and it is easier to anticipate their feelings about having genetic offspring born to someone else.

What Does Egg Donation Involve?

If you apply to become an egg donor you may have several medical visits before you are accepted. These visits will include a physical and gynecological exam, a medical and family history, blood and urine tests, and a psychological evaluation. You will also discuss your rights and responsibilities with a program representative. A donation will not occur unless you are accepted, matched with a woman who will receive your eggs, and give your consent.

Using donated eggs to establish a pregnancy involves in vitro fertilization (IVF). First, you will take a series of fertility drugs (some of which must be injected) to stimulate your ovaries to produce many eggs at one time. While using the drugs, you will have frequent medical tests. Removing the eggs from your ovaries involves a minor surgical procedure. After you recover from egg retrieval, your part of the treatment cycle is finished.

Your eggs will then be mixed with sperm from the intended father in the clinic's laboratory. If embryos result, they will be grown in a lab dish before one or more are transferred into the uterus of the recipient. If she becomes pregnant and delivers a child, she will be the birth mother and legal mother of that child even though the child will be genetically related to you.

What Should I Know About Ads For Egg Donors?

When you answer an ad for egg donors, it is important to find out who placed it. Many infertility programs advertise for egg donors to help treat their patients. These programs provide all the screening, matching, and medical procedures required by the donation.

In some cases, ads are placed by egg brokers. These individuals or organizations recruit egg donors but do not provide medical services. If you contact a broker, be sure to find out who is responsible for each part of the egg donor process. Will you be screened by the broker? Will an infertility program want to repeat those tests? Who will pay your medical bills? What will happen if you develop complications? What will happen to information you provide?

Occasionally, advertisements - supposedly on behalf of a specific couple - will offer a large amount of money to the right egg donor. These ads seek donors with special qualities, such as above-average height, athletic or musical ability, or an Ivy League education. Be aware that, in some cases, there is actually no couple willing to pay the enticing fees. Instead, a broker is trying to attract a large number of applicants. Details about these applicants will be used in the broker's advertising or on its Web site to attract recipients. Some brokers will use the information you give in these ways unless you specifically refuse permission.

You may receive a phone call offering a much lower fee to serve as a donor to another couple. Even if you are never called, information from your application may become available on the Internet.

Remember, the purpose of an ad is to entice you to become an egg donor. Do not rely on an advertisement for details about the process. You will need to read any educational materials and consent forms carefully. Ask questions until you understand the process well enough to make a decision.

Egg donation, also called oocyte donation is the anonymous and confidential process of providing eggs (called oocytes) for the purposes of in vitro fertilization or biomedical research. A woman usually donates her eggs which are then used, in the case of in vitro fertilization, to help infertile couples to achieve a child, a process called third party reproduction.

Who can donate eggs?

Donors come in two forms: designated donors and anonymous donors. Designated donors are women whom the couple has chosen to be the egg donor, which could be a personal friend or a relative. Anonymous donors are typically recruited by egg donor and IVF programs, and most often have no personal ties with the couples. However, couples who use the services of IVF programs are often allowed to get to know their anonymous egg donors if they want to do so. Egg donors are usually women younger than 28 years of age, in good health with no history of genetic diseases. Each potential egg donor is thoroughly screened, physically, psychologically, and emotionally before she can donate her eggs.

Why is egg donation done?

There are many indications for egg donation. Egg donation may often turn out to be the best solution for women who want to conceive with their husbands but have the following conditions:

Congenital conditions which resulted to an inability to produce eggs (i.e. Turner‚ the syndrome and gonadal dysgenesis)
Premature menopause (either through disease or surgery)
Women who are too old to produce viable eggs (advanced maternal age)
Women who are over 37 years old and have undergone repeated but failed in vitro fertilization attempts in the past
women who have had repeated miscarriages for unknown reasons

How is egg donation done?

An egg donor first undergoes a thorough screening process to rule out any history of genetic and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as any psychological and emotional problems. Once the donor is recruited she undergoes stimulation therapy, which involves the synchronization of the woman‚ the menstrual cycles and daily injections of medications to stimulate the ovaries. Once eggs are formed and mature enough they are retrieved and fertilized in the laboratory, usually with the sperm of the recipient‚ the husband. Legally-binding documents are often signed before this is done to ensure that the biological donor has no future claim on the child. Once fertilization is complete the embryo is injected to the recipient‚ the uterus where development of the fetus can take place.

Although the fetus is not genetically related to the recipient mother, egg donation is still a popular alternative for couples who do not see this as a barrier in their efforts to have a child of their own. Fortunately, the rate of success of in vitro fertilization with donated eggs has the same chances of those done on women implanted with their own embryos.

Egg donation is the process by which a woman, called a donor, provides her eggs to help another woman or couple conceive. Egg donation is also done to assist biomedical research, although this is a less common occurrence. The process is often an option for couples who cannot conceive due to a problem in the woman’s ability to produce eggs which could be an effect of advanced maternal age, disease, or previous surgery.

This may also be an option in couples where the woman has a high risk of passing a certain genetic disease to her child, in which case the eggs of another woman with no risk for genetic diseases, is utilized instead. Egg donation is done in conjunction with in vitro fertilization, the process of stimulating fertilization and embryo formation outside the woman’s body.

Suitable egg donors are often women in their early 20s and 30s, in good health with no history of diseases, genetic or otherwise and stable emotionally and mentally. A thorough screening process to make sure that a donor has all these things covered is often done before the woman can be accepted as an egg donor. Often, some couples choose a donor on their own, somebody who is a close friend or a relative. Donors who are personally connected to the couple are called designated donors while donors who have no links to the couple and are typically recruited by egg donation agencies are called anonymous donors.

After the donor is accepted she then undergoes egg stimulation therapy, which is then followed by the egg retrieval procedure. In vitro fertilization is done after which the resulting embryo is transferred to the womb of the mother.

There are some risks associated with the procedure, both to the donor and to the mother. The donor may experience complications from the egg stimulation and retrieval procedures, like altered hormone levels and bleeding. Some studies have shown that egg donors showed an increased risk for developing early menopause and ovarian cancer. The recipient also faces the risk of contracting a transmittable disease from the donor, despite the screening done. There is also the risk for multiple births, especially if the doctor transfers multiple eggs to ensure a greater chance for success. Twin births are often a possibility with IVF, which could be a problem if the couple was not planning for multiple children at once.

Although the resulting fetus will have no genetic link to the mother, the chances for success with a donated egg is more than 50% , good enough for couples who are not letting the little fact of genetic links get in the way of their desire to have a baby of their own.

Understanding Egg Donation Recommended Resources:

Harvard University Health Services

University of Washington