Donating your eggs gives families who cannot conceive on their own, either due to infertility or other life factors, the invaluable opportunity to have children of their own. If you are interested in donating your eggs, it is important to understand the process and what to expect.
Matching with Intended Parents
The first step in your egg donation journey is matching with intended parents. If you’re donating your eggs in a fresh cycle, like you would in Cofertility’s Split program, you won’t start any part of your cycle until after a match is made. However, other agencies may offer frozen eggs as part of their donor program, in which case you’d go through your retrieval first, and your eggs would go into storage and be listed on a database for intended parents to choose from.
Legal Agreement
After you match with intended parents, both parties will sign a legal agreement that outlines the details of the match. A typical egg donor legal agreement will outline the details of the desired disclosure status between all parties, as well as the custody agreement for the donated eggs, embryos, and future child for the intended parents. If you participate in Cofertility’s Split program, where you donate half of the eggs retrieved and freeze the second half for yourself for free, your legal agreement will also outline your entitlement to half of the egg yield.
The Egg Donation Process and Procedure
The egg donation process starts with stimulating your ovaries to produce multiple mature eggs. In a typical menstrual cycle, one follicle takes the lead and matures before the others can. Once the egg inside fully develops, the follicle ruptures, releasing the egg during ovulation, and the other egg follicles stop growing. However, during an egg donation or freezing cycle, with the aid of certain medications, doctors can help ensure that many follicles mature at the same time, so multiple eggs can be collected.
Pre-Donation Screening
Prior to being approved to donate your eggs, you will receive a series of comprehensive screening and testing to ensure that you are physically and emotionally eligible for donation. Typically, this includes a hormone panel, blood work, a transvaginal ultrasound, and a physical exam. Additionally, you’ll undergo genetic testing, have your personal and family medical history reviewed, and have a psychological screening.
All About The Meds
The stimulation process takes about two weeks and involves injectable medications, which you will receive training on from your clinic. During this time, you will have regular monitoring visits, including blood work and vaginal ultrasounds to check your follicle growth.
The Egg Retrieval
Once your follicles have reached the appropriate size, your doctor will give you a trigger shot to help the eggs mature and prepare for retrieval. The egg retrieval is the only real "procedure" and is done on an outpatient basis at the clinic. The procedure takes about 30 minutes, and your doctor will use a vaginal ultrasound with a needle attached to aspirate the fluid in each follicle. You will be under light anesthesia, so you won't feel any discomfort.
How Will I Feel Afterward?
After the procedure, you may feel a bit foggy, and you'll need to rest for a day or two. Physically, you can return to work or school the following day, but taking a day or two off to relax is ideal.
Ready to Move Forward?
If you are interested in donating your eggs, you may want to consider the Split Program offered by Cofertility, where you can freeze your eggs for free when you donate half to a family that can't conceive. The Split Program is an excellent opportunity for women who want to help others while preserving their fertility options down the line at the same time.
Meera Shah, MD, FACOG, is a double board certified OBGYN and reproductive endocrinology and fertility specialist at NOVA IVF in Mountain View, California. She received her Bachelor's degree at UC-Berkeley and completed a post-baccalaureate research fellowship at the National Institute of Health Academy program. She attended Stanford Medical School and completed her residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco. She rounded out her training with a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Stanford University. She is an active member of the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society, American Society of Reproductive Medicine, and Bay Area Reproductive Society.
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