Your Guide To How Many Eggs Can You Donate At A Time & How It Affects Your Overall Number Of Eggs

People can donate eggs multiple times in their lives, but how many eggs can you donate at a time? And does it affect your overall egg storage or ability to have children later? Keep reading your guide to how egg donation is related to egg maturity and egg loss for answers to these questions and more.

How Many Eggs Can You Donate At A Time?

You donate between 10 and 20 eggs per egg retrieval procedure.

During your standard ovulation cycle, your body begins to mature between 10 and 20 eggs, but usually, only one egg is ready for fertilization. Fertility hormones taken by injection before donation stimulate more eggs to maturity and later collection during egg retrieval.

How Egg Cell Maturity & Loss Works

The Basics Of Egg Cells & How Many Eggs You Start Off With

You are born with all the egg cells you will ever have (around one million), with most people having 300,000 to 400,000 egg cells by the time they start puberty.

Immature egg cells are located in follicles (which are fluid-filled sacs) in the ovaries until they are ready to mature. Once a person starts their menstrual cycle, their body produces a follicle-stimulating hormone that begins the process of egg development.

When Eggs Start To Mature

Each month, your body begins to stimulate about 15-20 follicles. This begins the egg maturation process.

However, only one egg cell will fully mature and break free to move down the fallopian tubes. This is the single egg that can be fertilized by sperm.

The rest of the follicles that do not produce mature eggs will die, as will the eggs contained in them. Additionally, it’s estimated that another 1,000 follicles (and eggs nestled inside them) die via natural cell death.

What Affects Egg Cell Death?

As far as scientists can tell, egg cell death happens independently of any external factor. It doesn’t matter whether you get pregnant, take birth control, hormones, or nutritional supplements, or do anything else lifestyle-wise: you will always lose around 1,000 eggs every month.

So, Do You Lose Any Egg Cells If You Donate Your Eggs?

Egg donors do not lose any additional eggs if they choose to donate their eggs. Donating eggs will not affect your future plans if you intend to have children of your own one day.

During the egg donation process, donors take hormones that will increase the number of fully matured eggs. Then, instead of only being able to donate one fully mature egg, you can donate 10 to 20, giving more prospective parents a chance to have a child.

Whether you donate eggs or not, your body still loses 1,000 eggs every month. However, by donating, eggs can be rescued for use by someone else who can’t conceive on their own instead of simply dying a natural cell death.

You may donate eggs up to six times in your life, which is the limit set by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. This means that you can donate between 60 and 120 eggs in total. Read our guide on how to donate multiple eggs for more information on multiple donation cycles.

How To Start The Egg Donation Process At The World Egg And Sperm Bank

If you are interested in changing lives through one of the most heart-warming acts possible, contact the World Egg and Sperm Bank for free for more information on how to start the egg donation process. We put the comfort and safety of egg donors before everything else, so you can rest assured that your donation will be as smooth as possible.

Read our post on egg donor requirements if you’re not sure whether you qualify to become a donor.

FAQs: How Many Eggs Can You Donate At A Time

How many eggs can you donate at a time?

During the egg retrieval process, you donate between 10 and 20 eggs at a time.

Can I donate all my eggs at once?

It is not possible to donate all your eggs at once. You can, however, donate eggs up to six times in your life, which totals to a donation of 60-120 eggs out of the 300,000 eggs your body starts out with when you begin menstruation.

If I donate eggs, can I still have babies?

You can still have babies if you donate eggs. This is because you naturally lose eggs during your menstrual cycle, whether you decide to donate or not, so donating eggs will not reduce the number of overall eggs you have during your next ovulation cycle. If you have an questions regarding how many eggs can you donate at a time, please reach out to us!

Read our post on egg donation and future fertility for more information on how donating eggs may affect future pregnancies.

Follow Us On Our Socials!

Check out our Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn pages to see our content and learn more!