I’ve Heard a Lot About Egg Donors for Infertility...Where Do I Start?

Most women have kind of a weird relationship with their ovaries and eggs: they go through life completely forgetting those little baby-making vessels exist...until they really, really need one. And if you’re a guy, up until this point, you may have never even thought about how eggs fit into the whole conception process. But trust us, they’re important.

So what happens when you’re ready to have a baby, but a) you don’t have any eggs left, b) the eggs still around aren’t working the way they’re supposed to, or c) you never had any eggs in the first place.

You may need to undergo donor egg IVF. Yeah, we know—it can be a lot to wrap your head around at first. Let us help with that! If you’re thinking about building your family through egg donor IVF, here’s everything you need to know about how it works.

What kinds of people need donor eggs?

There’s a wide variety of individuals and couples who might consider egg donation in order to have a baby. According to Dr. Mark Leondires, a reproductive endocrinologist (fertility doctor), this list includes:

• Single men or same sex male couples (who’ll also have to line up a surrogate)
• Young women, single or with a partner, who have premature ovarian failure (i.e. little or no eggs left) 
• Older or menopausal women, either single or with a partner
• Couples suffering from infertility because the eggs aren’t fertilizing or developing successfully

Got it. But what kinds of people donate eggs?

Egg donors go through a rigorous vetting process. Our team screens tens of thousands of donors each year through a multi-step process to ensure each person is qualified and prepared to become an egg donor, going above and beyond FDA and ASRM-recommended screening guidelines. 

The women who qualify to become egg donors are the most likely to have a successful outcome. But who are they? Our donors are ambitious, kind, and excited to help your family.

Our unique egg sharing model empowers women to take control of their own reproductive health while giving you the gift of a lifetime. Our donors aren’t doing it for cash – they keep half the eggs retrieved for their own future use, and donate half to your family.

Want to meet them? It’s free to create an account and browse donor profiles. 

What was all that about medications? This sounds waaaay more complicated than sperm donation.

That’s because it is! Donating sperm is an easy way for guys to cash in on their reproductive abilities; as long as a man passes a health screening, for the most part, he decides how much personal information he wants revealed about himself, donates his swimmers, and moves on. 

Egg donors, on the other hand, need to be induced into something called “super ovulation” with an ovulation-stimulating injectable drug, says Dr. Leondires, prior to being able to donate any eggs. Unfortunately for donors, “super ovulation” doesn’t mean they acquire reproductive superpowers (!), but that they’re able to produce multiple eggs for a single donation procedure. 

Meanwhile, the egg recipient will also have to take some hormonal medication.  Depending on your fertility center’s practice, the recipient may be taking hormones to sync her cycle with a fresh embryo transfer.  Alternatively, she will take hormones in prep for a frozen embryo transfer cycle. The American Pregnancy Association notes that this helps create an optimal endometrial environment (a.k.a. a friendly uterus) for a future transferred embryo.  

How do I pick an egg donor?

If you’re looking for an egg donor, you may be wondering which attributes are most important. Is it her personality? Her interests? Her ethnicity? Her physical characteristics? As you browse the profiles of donors on our Family by Co platform, you will get to know each potential donor better. You will see what she looked like as a child, learn about her hobbies and life goals, and hopefully find someone who is the right match to help build your family.

Learn more in Should I Pick an Egg Donor Who Looks Like Me? 

What if I want to use my sister’s eggs?

Dr. Leondires says this is actually pretty common, either by one sister donating to another sister who has infertility or a sister donating to her gay brother. But there’s a lot of potential pitfalls here: you’ll want to talk about what relationship, if any, the donor will have with your child; how many times she would be willing to donate eggs if the first attempt doesn’t work; and how she might react if she suffers from infertility herself when trying to start her own family. 

There’s also a series of legal hoops to jump through with known donors in addition to a mental health consultation to make sure everyone is on board with what’s best for the child and a legal agreement to protect everyone’s rights.

What kind of rights are we talking about?

1. Yours, so you can maintain custody of your child as the sole parent or co-parent (with your spouse/partner) without worrying about the egg donor suing for custody or parental rights later.
2. Theirs, so your egg donor can’t be sued for child support in the future.
3. Your child’s, so they never have to be dragged into court for a painful custody battle between the parents who’ve raised them and their egg donor. 

Read more in What to Know About Having a Family Member be Your Egg Donor 

How the heck do the eggs get from the donor to me or a gestational carrier?

Good question. Dr. Leondires breaks down the steps:

• First, the donor will head to the fertility clinic after about 10 days of using injectable medication. Her ovaries will be the size of grapefruits (for jaw-dropping reference, ovaries are usually the size of clementines, so yeah...now they’re huge). 
• Then, she’ll be put to sleep under general anesthetic. Egg retrieval is a quick surgical procedure. The doctor extracts the fluid and eggs from the donor’s ovaries. 
• Next, the eggs are fertilized with the intended male partner’s sperm; this is the start of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The embryos are grown in a lab for 5 days. They’re carefully monitored to determine which one(s) are considered the best quality. 
• Finally, after 5 days (and any additional time for genetic testing), any high quality embyros are frozen until ready to be used. Or, alternatively, the best quality embyro is selected to be implanted into the recipient in a simple transfer procedure that completes the IVF process.

What are your chances of having a baby with donor eggs? Depending on your individual circumstances, the chances of having a baby using a donor egg may be significantly higher than the chances of having a baby with In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) using your own eggs.

IVF success rates are impacted by things like age, genetics, and other medical conditions that impact egg quality. Donor eggs may eliminate these factors. That doesn’t mean that IVF can’t be successful on its own (it can!); but, some people, especially those with low egg quality or quantity, will experience a higher rate of success if they undergo IVF with the aid of donor eggs.

Frozen eggs retrieved from women under the age of 36 have a 95 percent survival rate after being thawed. This figure can present a huge relief for hopeful parents who are worried about the cost associated with obtaining eggs and fearful of the disappointment that could come along with not even getting past the first stage of the process. While those numbers are strong, they drop slightly to 85 percent when accounting for eggs that were retrieved from women over the age of 36.

Around 53 percent of all donor egg cycles will result in a little bundle (or in some cases, bundles) of joy that you’ve been dreaming of.

Find an egg donor through Cofertility

If you are looking for a disclosed egg donor, we can help. At Cofertility, our unique model of egg sharing creates a better experience for everyone involved. Our donors aren’t doing it for cash – they keep half the eggs retrieved for their own future use, and donate half to your family.

We aim to be the best egg sharing program, providing an experience that honors, respects, and uplifts everyone involved. Here’s what sets us apart:

• Baby guarantee. We truly want to help you bring your baby home, and we will re-match you for free until that happens.
• Donor empowerment. Our model empowers donors to preserve their own fertility, while lifting you up on your own journey. It’s a win-win.
• Diversity: We’re proud about the fact that the donors on our platform are as diverse as the intended parents seeking to match with them. We work with intended parents to understand their own cultural values — including regional nuances — in hopes of finding them the perfect match.
• Human-centered. We didn’t like the status quo in egg donation. So we’re doing things differently, starting with our human-centered matching platform.
• Lifetime support: Historically, other egg donation options have treated egg donor matching as a one-and-done experience. Beyond matching, beyond a pregnancy, beyond a birth…we believe in supporting the donor-conceived family for life. Our resources and education provide intended parents with the guidance they need to raise happy, healthy kids and celebrate their origin stories.

We are obsessed with improving the family-building journey — today or in the future — and are in an endless pursuit to make these experiences more positive. Create a free account to get started today!