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What’s Involved in Being an Egg Donor?

First Step                                                          

If you’re interested in becoming an egg donor the first step is to get in touch and you will be sent our health questionnaire to complete.   You will then meet with one of our nurses who will take a blood sample and measure your BMI. This blood test will look at your ovarian reserve to help us see whether you would produce the right number of eggs to donate.

Initial Screening Visit

The next visit involves a consultation with one of our doctors to discuss egg donation and to talk about your and your family’s medical history.  You may have an ultrasound scan to visualise your uterus and ovaries and a general physical examination. Blood and urine screening tests are also performed to see if you are eligible to donate. Independent counsellors are available to talk to at any point, to discuss the implications of being a donor.

Consents and Medication

After all the screening results are complete you would then be asked to come back to visit one of our nurses. They will go through the necessary consent forms and discuss how to use the medication that will stimulate your ovaries to produce eggs. This medication is usually in easy to use injection pens that you administer yourself at home.

Finding a Match

We will then look to match you to a woman who is waiting for an egg donor who has similar characteristics to yourself. Once a match has been found we would synchronise yours and recipients cycle. As the donated eggs aren’t frozen, the recipient’s uterus has to be at the right stage so that an embryo can be transferred a few days after the eggs are donated. 

Preparing for Egg Collection

Once the cycles are synchronised you can start administering the medication to stimulate your ovaries to produce eggs. This involves daily injections and visits to the clinics every few days to check hormone levels and ensure that follicles are growing in your ovaries. It is hoped that most follicles will contain an egg.

Collecting the Eggs

Once the follicles have grown sufficiently the eggs are ready to be collected. The egg collection procedure is performed by a Doctor under sedation or sometimes a general anaesthetic. It takes about 30-45 minutes and a fine sterile needle is used to aspirate the follicles in the ovaries to find the eggs. After the procedure you will spend a short while at the clinic recovering before leaving  later that day.