How to Become an Egg Donor: The Complete Guide

Without a map to guide you, the journey towards egg donation can seem like an endless, baffling labyrinth of interviews, screenings, and confusing medical jargon. What does all this mean for YOU, the aspiring donor in terms of getting to the finish line? What does the program look like from beginning, middle, to end? Let US, the egg donation eggs-perts provide you with the entire map, from application to egg retrieval! Keep reading to find out how to become an egg donor!

 

 

How to Become an Egg Donor: The Beginning, Middle, and End

Let’s begin your traverse into the unknown! To make your travels smoother, we’ll segment your egg donor journey into a:

• Beginning (Application + Interview + Acceptance into program)
• Middle (Medical/Psychological Screening + Stimulation + Monitoring)
• End (Egg Retrieval)

 

How to Become an Egg Donor- The Beginning: Applying, Interviewing, Acceptance

Each aspiring egg donor needs to start somewhere, and it begins with the application process. Filling out our application (takes roughly 30-40 minutes) helps our donor coordinators and clinical team:

• Indicate whether you meet our general qualifications.
• Learn about your personal lifestyle habits.
• Learn more about you and your aspirations to donate.

 

So, what type of information will you be expected to fill out? Will most of the information be easily on hand? Most of these questions will regard general personal information as well as the health history of you and your biological family members. Regarding family health history, some applicants may need access to certain family members to clarify potential health conditions if not already known. The application will identify if you meet these criteria:

• Women 18-31 years old
• Proof of permanent residency in the United States or Canada with a corresponding Government issued ID
• Non-smoker
• No alcohol or drug abuse
• Healthy BMI
• Can provide full and accurate medical history of yourself as well as parents, siblings, and grandparents on both sides.
• No indications of serious physical or psychological genetic conditions
• On a form of birth control that is accepted for egg donation.

 

Some women’s journey, unfortunately, will end here, if the application indicates they are not a valid candidate based on our requirements. For others, once you have completed the applications and not received a denial message, you will be invited to schedule a Zoom interview with one of our donor coordinators.

Don’t worry, we use the word “interview” very loosely (no formal attire or preparation needed 😉)! This is much more of a friendly conversation where we will:

• Go through each step of the egg donation process in depth past application.
• Answer any questions you have like:
  • How much time will I need to commit to the process?
  • What happens during egg retrieval?
  • When and how will I be reimbursed?
• Set you up for next steps.

After the conversation comes to an end, you will simply wait for our coordinator to give you a call, informing you that you are ready to start screening.

 

How to Become an Egg Donor- The Middle: Screening and Stimulation

Even though you have provided general health information pertaining to you and your biological family, our clinical team practices due diligence to screen for all potential health issues (this ensures that no serious health conditions are passed on to the future child).

There are two sides to the coin for health screening: Psychological and Physical.

 

Psychological Screening:

• A general psych evaluation by our psychological counselor (conducted via Zoom). They’ll begin a dialogue to better understand and evaluate your current mental state in connection with your willingness to donate. We always want to ensure that our donors are mentally ready to continue through donation, fully understand the process, and are okay with donating their genetic material. (it’s a big decision!)
• Genetic testing will be conducted to identify any serious psychological conditions that if present, could pass to the future child.

 

Physical Screening:

• Ultrasounds and initial labs to evaluate and monitor your uterus and ovaries during a menstruation cycle.
• Blood draw to undergo Genetic testing will also be conducted to identify any serious physical conditions that if present, could pass to the future child.
• An evaluation of the results of your genetic blood draw. You’ll meet with our genetic counselor (again via Zoom) to review any possible determinants that we cannot continue with donation.
• STD screenings will be completed. If a present STD is confirmed, screening will pause until treated and cleared for most cases.

 

Hormone Stimulation and Monitoring:

This stage of the egg donation process is often the one we get the most questions about.

• What are these injections for?
  • These injections are to stimulate your ovaries, therefore maturing your eggs so they are ready for retrieval.
• When will I need to start?
  • 2 weeks before your egg retrieval date, you will begin self-administering hormone shots.
• Will it hurt?
  • Don’t worry! The needles are actually quite small (subcutaneous needles), because of how microscopic your eggs are.
  • Overall, you may just experience slight bloating, abdominal cramping, and breast tenderness.

 

How to Become an Egg Donor- The End: Egg Retrieval Procedure

Almost to the end! So, how do we retrieve your eggs?

• When you come to our facility, donors will be put under twilight sedation for their comfortability. Our physicians will then use an ultrasound probe to enter the vaginal canal, through the vaginal wall, into the ovaries which contain follicles that keep your stimulated eggs.
• This procedure should only take 30 minutes at most, and recovery takes 1-3 days, with only light activity suggested. We typically retrieve 10-20 matured eggs.

 

 

Welcome The Beginning of Egg Donation!

We completely understand and sympathize that for first-time egg donors, it can seem daunting to take that first step towards investigating the process, so we hope we’ve helped you clear some confusions and ease some worries. Now that you better understand how to become an egg donor, if YOU feel as though you may be a good candidate, apply HERE!

 

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