An Intended Parents Guide to Fresh Egg Donation with Cofertility

At Cofertility, we believe that everyone deserves the ability to build the family of their dreams. Part of this is ensuring intended parents have access to different options for working with an egg donor, including both fresh and frozen egg donation. In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about working with a donor in our fresh program.

‍If you’re interested in learning more about our options for frozen egg donation, click here.

An overview of fresh egg donation

Our unique egg sharing model provides intended parents with an alternative to cash compensation for egg donation. At Cofertility, our donors always go through a split cycle in which she keeps half of the eggs retrieved for her own future family planning and donates half to your family.

The key difference between fresh and frozen egg donation with Cofertility is the point at which the donor completes her screening and egg retrieval. With fresh egg donation, the screening and retrieval process is started after you match with the donor. 

Rest assured, we complete preliminary screening for donors prior to listing them on our platform, so all donors have been pre-qualified to move forward with egg donation per ASRM, FDA, and standard egg donation guidelines. Initial screening includes:

• Confirming the donor's age is within ASRM guidelines. All donors on our matching platform are 21-33 years old.
• Reviewing the donor’s personal medical history, including lifestyle, chronic conditions, mental health, and reproductive health, in line with ASRM, FDA, and standard egg donation guidelines.
• Reviewing the donor’s biological family’s medical history, inclusive of evidence of genetic disorders, cancer history, and other conditions and illnesses, in line with ASRM, FDA, and standard guidelines.
• Collecting and reviewing past egg donation history with outcomes, if applicable.
• AMH testing via blood draw. All Cofertility donors are required to have an AMH level of 2.0 or higher.

Upon confirming a mutual match between you and the donor, additional screening will be initiated to include:

• Antral follicle count (AFC) assessment 
• General health examination
• Genetic carrier screening
• Psychological screening

Once the donor completes the necessary screening and receives your doctor’s approval to move forward as a donor, you’ll enter into a legal agreement directly with the donor. From there, the egg retrieval process will begin.

Considerations for fresh egg donation

Both fresh or frozen egg donation can be great options, depending on your individual goals and what you’re looking for at this point in time. There are several reasons intended parents may choose to pursue fresh egg donation with Cofertility.

Fresh embryo creation

One of the main perks of fresh egg donation is that embryos can be created immediately upon retrieval, rather than being created from previously-frozen eggs. This could potentially lead to more healthy embryos being successfully created, since the thawing process can lead to a loss of some eggs.

Local cycles

Additionally, working with a donor in our fresh program allows for the opportunity to have the donor cycle at your clinic, potentially even with your doctor. If you have already established a great relationship with your doctor and their team, this can ensure continuity throughout the entire process. 

Meeting the donor pre-retrieval

While both programs allow you to meet with the donor (and both allow for disclosed or undisclosed donations), with fresh egg donation, you can meet with the donor in advance of her completing her retrieval cycle. 

Finding the right donor 

Ultimately, the most important thing is that you feel great about the donor who you match with. If you’re open to either journey, it might just be a question of finding the right donor and then accommodating whichever program she’s in. 

Our Baby Guarantee

We’re truly committed to helping families grow — that’s why we’ve built one of the most parent-friendly programs out there, inclusive of our Baby Guarantee.

While some agencies require you to pay extra to guarantee a set number of embryos, Cofertility’s Baby Guarantee is built into our fees upfront. That means from the second you place a hold on a match, you're covered by this guarantee, which states that if anything outside your control happens during the process that prevents you from bringing your baby home, we will re-match you for free, as many times as it takes.

What does this mean, exactly? If you match with a donor who doesn’t pass screening, we’ll rematch you. If the donor’s egg retrieval does not result in any mature eggs, we’ll rematch you. If no healthy embryos are created, we’ll rematch you. If no embryos result in a live birth, we’ll rematch you. In other words, we’re in this together, and we’re committed to helping your family grow.

How it works

We understand how daunting the process of looking for an egg donor can be. Our team works tirelessly to ensure that the process of finding your perfect match is as straightforward and as positive of an experience as possible. If you are interested in matching with a donor participating in our fresh egg donation program, here’s how the process works:

1. Create a free account: Simply answer a few questions about what you’re looking for to get immediate access to our donor matching platform at no cost. From there, you’ll be able to view profiles for the hundreds of donors that are available to match with families like yours. All donors listed on our platform are available for fresh donation unless noted otherwise in the “About this donor” section of her profile.

2. Find your match: When you find a donor with whom you’d like to match. Just press the “hold this match” button at the top of her profile. From there, you’ll be directed to pay your $500 match deposit, which will immediately remove the donor from the platform so no other intended parents can match with her while we confirm details with all parties.

At any time, you can also schedule a free consultation with a member of our team so that we can help you find your match. 

3. Mutual match confirmation: Shortly after you place a hold on a match, you’ll be assigned a dedicated Member Advocate who will be with you through the process end-to-end. Your Member Advocate will reach out to set up a kickoff call, during which you’ll go over the details of the process and confirm your match preferences. At the same time, the donor will go through the same process, to ensure a mutual match all around.

Additionally, if both parties are interested, we can facilitate a virtual or in-person meeting between you and your donor. This can be done on- or off- camera and with or without names revealed, in order to accommodate both disclosed and undisclosed matches.

4. Donor screening and retrieval: Once the match is confirmed by you and the donor, we’ll get started on coordinating the donor’s in-person screening. This can be done either at your clinic (you’ll be responsible for paying for the donor’s travel expenses) or at a clinic local to the donor. Once all screening results are in and we receive approval from your doctor, you’ll work with an attorney who will draft a legal agreement between you and the donor. Once there’s legal clearance, the donor’s retrieval cycle will be scheduled.

5. The split and embryo creation: On the day of the donor’s retrieval, the mature egg yield will be split evenly between both parties (if there is an odd number of mature eggs retrieved, you will receive the “extra” egg). The donor’s portion of the eggs retrieved will be immediately frozen and put into long term storage. Most intended parents choose to create embryos immediately upon retrieval, but you’ll also have the option to freeze unfertilized eggs, if preferred. 

Post-embryo creation, what happens next is entirely up to you. Some intended parents opt to complete a fresh embryo transfer, while others may decide to freeze and store embryos for later use. Some intended parents choose to complete PGT on their embryos prior to implantation, while others may not. Some intended parents plan to carry the pregnancy themselves, while others are working with a gestational carrier. In any case, we’re passionate about creating an egg donation experience that is anything but transactional, and we are here to help make the process as seamless as possible — from embryo creation, to pregnancy, birth, and beyond.

Pricing

With a fresh cycle, you can expect to pay the match deposit, Cofertility’s Coordination Fee, and a range of expenses to various third parties involved in the process, including lawyers, genetic counselors, and your clinic. We break this down in more detail on our pricing page. 

Conclusion

At Cofertility, we know there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to growing your family with donor eggs. We’re proud to offer our unique no-cash compensation egg sharing model for both fresh and frozen donation to give intended parents as many paths as possible to grow their families. To create a free account and get instant access to our donor matching platform, click here. We can’t wait to be part of your journey.