An Overview Of What To Expect When You Decide To Donate An Egg To An Infertile Woman

As a fertile woman, you can help women who can't produce an egg so they can become pregnant and have a baby. Roughly 12.3% of women between the ages of 15 to 44 have impaired fertility in the United States. This is where you come in. As a woman who can produce healthy eggs, you can donate eggs to a clinic that helps infertile women, and those eggs will be fertilized and inserted into a woman who can now experience the joys of motherhood in a natural way. You probably have a few questions on how the procedure works before you commit to starting the process. Here is a brief overview of what you can expect when you donate an egg to a hopeful mom-to-be.

Approval Process

You will have to be approved before you will be allowed to donate an egg. This consists of medical and psychological examinations to make sure you are physically and psychologically prepared to donate. There will be blood tests and an ultrasound to make sure you are healthy and that no unwanted diseases will be passed from you to the recipient of the egg. The psychological examination will consist of meeting with a psychologist so they can determine that you fully understand the process and are a willing and knowledgeable participant.

Contract

You will enter into a contractual relationship with the clinic performing the infertility service and with the recipient. Donors are typically compensated financially for the egg.

Hormone Therapy

There will be a series of injections you will have to take to prepare your body for the harvesting of the egg. The first series will last about 12 days. During this time you will self-inject a prescribed daily dose of a drug like Lupron. Lupron is used to overstimulate the production of estrogen in your body so the production of the hormone stops. This allows your reproductive system to reset itself.

The next series will last for about 10 days. During this time, you will take daily shots of the FSH hormone. The FSH hormones stimulate the production of eggs while controlling your menstrual cycle. You will typically be asked to appear at the clinic every day to have your hormone levels tested. You will take a shot of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) to stimulate the ovaries to release the egg once your hormones reach a certain level. This last shot will happen about 34 hours or so before the egg is retrieved.

Egg Retrieval

You will be giving a mild sedative while the doctor retrieves the egg from your uterus. A needle is used to dislodge the egg from the uterus and to vacuum it out of your body. You should be fully awake in an hour or so, and you'll be able to return to work and school the next day. The egg will then be implanted in the recipient so they can start a family.

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