Egg Donation Caps: How Many Times Can You Donate Eggs?

Sarah has been considering donating her eggs for quite some time. She completed the application, passed the required medical and physical screening, and had a successful retrieval with her frozen eggs now in the bank. What does Sarah do next? She enjoyed donating her eggs and helping a couple in need and would love to do so again, but does the buck stop there? Absolutely not! Egg donors don’t need to stop after a single donation cycle. With that being the case, how many times can Sarah donate, and how many times can you donate eggs?

Keep reading as we’ll eggs-plain the entire process of consecutive donations, and when it becomes time for the journey to end!

 

 

Why is There a Cap on How Many Times You Can Donate Your Eggs?

So, why can you only donate your eggs a certain number of times? This regulation egg-sists for the safety and consideration towards 4 involved parties:

• Sarah (aka the egg donor).
• The future intended child that could result from a pregnancy.
• The future parents that would utilize the frozen eggs.
• The institutions (American Society of Reproductive Medicine) that help egg bank’s follow guidelines.

As you can see, there are a lot of hands in the egg-basket that is egg donation, that must be considered equally. Limitations for donation cycles stem from these factors:

 

Egg Donors Mental and Physical Health

Let’s think about our egg donor, Sarah. The journey towards egg donation is extensive and requires significant mental and physical commitment. At The World Egg and Sperm bank, we want to put her health FIRST. This means being attentive towards mental and bodily strain. With Sarah becoming a regular donor it is OUR responsibility to ensure that her wellbeing is not affected by excessive donation.

• Mental and physical preparation: Donating your eggs is NOT an in and out procedure! With screening, testing, ovary stimulation, and egg retrieval, donating your eggs takes up to 4 months once you’ve been selected. This means that after a certain amount of donations, your body needs to rest and part ways, as ASRM suggests.
• Procedural risks: Egg retrieval is an elective, minimally invasive procedure, and like any procedure, there are certain risks at play. Aside from the clinical standards and procedures we have in place to severely reduce these risks, excessive donations can promote the increased likelihood of one or more occurring.

 

Procedural risks include:

• Infection after procedure.
• Allergic reaction to sedative.
• Needle infection from hormone injections.

(these occur in less than 0.05% of patients who donate the legal number of times)

 

• Overstimulation of the Ovaries– Each time Sarah donates her eggs, she must go through two weeks of self-administered hormone stimulation shots. When considering this, if Sarah were to donate over the recommended amount, these injections could cause overstimulation in her ovaries. This is called Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome- This is an extremely rare condition (0.01 % of TWESB donors).

 

• Fertility Health- Sarah’s own fertility health is just as important as the possibility of helping a couple become pregnant. We want to ensure that if she chooses to start her own family someday, that the status of her reproductive organs isn’t affected by donation. According to ASRM, egg donors should only donate between 60-120 eggs total in their lifetime.

 

Family Limits

There aren’t just limits on donation cycles, but ALSO limits on the number of future intended children resulting from a single donor’s bank of available frozen or fresh eggs. This is to reduce the amount of related, donor-conceived babies, a standard set by ASRM. We want to severely decrease the risk of future children created by Sarah’s eggs, unknowingly coming into contact.

 

 

How Many Times Can You Donate Eggs?

So, Sarah has donated her eggs only once, how many more times could she cycle? According to ASRM, egg donors can donate up to 6 times in their lifetime. This is across the board too! If Sarah decided to try a different egg bank, she cannot donate 6 times at one facility and an additional 6 cycles somewhere else in the United States. She can only donate 6 times, regardless of location and the span of time between each cycle.

 

How Long Do You Have to Wait Between Each Donation?

Sarah finished her cycle a few days ago. How long does she have to wait to donate again and how does she re-start the process? Well, Sarah would have to wait until she has had at least 2 menstrual cycles after donating to begin the process again. All Sarah would need to do is notify our clinical team that she is ready for an additional cycle to get things going! How many times could Sarah then donate per year? Sarah could donate up to 3 times per year, and luckily for Sarah, since she has already completed the application and screening process the first time around, she can donate within 1-2 months of that last cycle!

 

 

That’s All For Today, Yolks! Apply Online to Donate!

Now that we’ve answered the question, “how many times can you donate eggs?” You can follow Sarah’s footsteps and apply to donate!

 

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