Egg Donation

Egg donation is a very personal decision based on generosity and altruism. However, the health of our donors and children born is paramount, and there are some key criteria for our prospective egg donors:

• Your age should be between 18 and 35, as the quality of eggs can reduce after age 36
• You also need to be fit and healthy with no family history of hereditary illnesses
• For your safety, your BMI should be below 35.

If you fit these criteria, you could be exactly who we’re looking for.

1. Medical assessment

Before you can undergo the egg donation procedure, you’ll first have a medical assessment. This involves:

• Filling out a detailed medical questionnaire which details any genetic illness within your family.
• Meeting a nurse from our donation team who will discuss the whole egg donation process with you in detail.
• Some hormone blood tests.
• A vaginal ultrasound scan.
• Screening for infectious diseases and genetic and hereditary conditions.

2. Support and counselling for egg donors

Choosing to donate your eggs is a personal and important decision. So, after you’ve talked through the process with our donation team, we’ll also invite you to meet one of our experienced counsellors. They’ll talk to you about the ethical implications of egg donation and listen to any thoughts or worries you might have.

3. Egg donation consultation

Once you’re happy to go ahead with the egg donation, you’ll then meet one of our consultants. They’ll assess whether you’re suitable to be an egg donor, describe the donation journey in detail, and make a final decision. If they decide you fit our criteria things can move quickly; you might start the process as soon as two to four weeks later.

4. Stimulating your ovaries

The first step of the donation process is to stimulate your ovaries. To do this, you’ll need to give yourself daily injections for around twelve days, which we’ll teach you how to do. During this time, you’ll also need to come into the clinic on three or four mornings for ultrasound scans and blood tests.

5. Giving consent

Before we collect your eggs, we’ll ask you to sign a consent form. This document not only grants permission for us to collect your eggs but also establishes what you’d like us to do with your eggs in a number of different scenarios.

6. Egg collection

The technique we use to collect your eggs will be exactly the same as the one we use in an IVF cycle.

Egg collection is a non-surgical procedure. It is typically done under mild sedation or local anaesthetic; you will not need a general anaesthetic. No incision is made, and no stitches are necessary.

Using ultrasound as a guide, we use a needle to extract eggs from the ovarian follicles. At most, you’ll feel a few twinges, but we’d recommend having a short rest before going home.

7. After egg donation

After donating your eggs at our egg bank, you’ll be entitled to find out if any babies have been born as a result, and if so, the year they were born in, and their gender.

You can also write a brief goodwill message, which can be given to those children when they turn 18; you might like to tell them about how it felt to help their parents, your hobbies, or just how your friends would describe you.

If a child is born from your donation, they might choose to request information about who you are when they turn 18. Your counsellor can talk to you all about this during your session.