Who needs egg donation?

Some couples are infertile because the woman is unable to produce eggs. This may occur because her ovaries have never developed properly (as in, for example, Turner's syndrome), because of ovarian failure (premature menopause) or because surgery or chemotherapy has made her sterile.

Also, many older women undergoing fertility treatment may have a better chance of achieving a pregnancy if they receive donated eggs. Some women are carriers of genetic disorders, which can be passed on a child through the mother's egg. Rather than risk giving birth to a child who may suffer greatly and die at an early age, a woman may request egg donation in order to increase the chance of a healthy child.

Why be an egg donor?

There is an acute shortage of egg donors in the UK and many couples wait several years to wait for a suitable donor. Some couples are fortunate enough to have friends or family willing to donate eggs as a 'known donor'. However most are not so fortunate and thus they are likely to be on a waiting list for sufficient anonymous donors to volunteer to donate their eggs.

Egg donors are not paid, as this is illegal in the UK, except to cover expenses (see separate section), so all women who donate eggs do so purely for altruistic reasons. Women who have donated eggs say that they feel immense satisfaction at having helped another couple achieve their dream of a pregnancy. Many are women who have received fertility treatment themselves in the past, or who have had a baby through artificial insemination, others are healthcare professionals who understand the pain of those unable to conceive naturally. Most women however donate because they are mothers themselves and want simply, to help other women to experience the pleasure they feel in having a child of their own.

Would you make a suitable donor?

Donors should be healthy women aged between 19 and 35 years, free of any serious medical condition, disability, congenital, family or hereditary disease and who are not severely overweight for their height. All potential donors will be tested for HIV Hepatitis B and C.

Counselling of Potential Egg Donors.

Potential donors are carefully counselled to ensure that they are fully aware of all that is involved in egg donation, their rights, the rights of the eventual parents and any child born as a result of donated eggs; as well as potential effects on the donor and their own family if they do indeed become an egg donor. Equally, they are advised of the medical procedures involved.

Screening of Potential Donors

It will be necessary for potential donors to be "screened" so as to ensure that they are free of infections, diseases or genetic conditions that might be transmitted in the donation process. Information will be required from you about your medical and family history. Potential donors will also need to have a general medical examination and blood tests.

With the potential donor's permission, their General Practitioner will be contacted in order to obtain a more detailed medical history.

As it is usual for there to be an attempt to match the physical characteristics of both the donor and the eventual recipient of the donated egg, general physical characteristics of eye and hair colour, height and weight and race and complexion are taken into account and are thus recorded.

What treatment does the donor have to under go?

In essence, the treatment involved for the egg donor is much the same as that for a woman undergoing IVF treatment. Thus the ovaries will need to be suppressed by desensitising the pituitary gland by means of either daily nasal sprays or injections for approximately four weeks. The ovaries are then stimulated by means of daily injections for at least ten days. Whilst the treatment may possibly be self administered there will be a need for regular ultrasound scans (about 5 or 6) to determine the stage of the ovulation cycle, together with further blood tests.

The actual egg collection will be performed under anaesthetic sedation; egg collection is performed vaginally under ultrasound control.

Donors can usually return home just several hours after the egg collection has been completed. However, they need to be aware that if they have had an anaesthetic they need to be accompanied home, and they may feel sleepy until the following day, and that, if they have children or other dependants, these will need others to look to their needs, until the after-effects of the anaesthetic sedation have worn off.

What risks are there for the donor?

The risks to the donor are considered to be minimal and short-term. Such risks include the possibility of troublesome bleeding or pelvic infection (less than a 1% chance). Equally, there is a 1% - 2% risk of excessive ovarian stimulation (too many eggs being produced) despite careful monitoring. In such a case, the donation cycle will probably be abandoned and treatment would be commenced to regularise your period cycle.

What next?

If you wish to become an egg donor and you are not excluded by reference to any of the above-mentioned criteria, you should now contact the Centre on 0116 2585922

When you visit the Centre, you will be asked questions about your health and related issues mentioned above. You will be offered counselling about what is involved and your rights, as well as the rights of those receiving your donated eggs and any child created by means of your donated eggs.

You need also to be aware that your details will be held on a register maintained by the HFEA as a safeguard against inappropriate sexual relationships between children sharing the same (genetic) mother.

Expenses

Those accepted, as egg donors are entitled to receive modest expenses for travel and other relevant expenses, such as loss of earnings, child minding, etc. However the law does not allow for any fee being paid to egg donors and strict limits are applied to the maximum level of expenses payable and as determined from time to time by the HFEA. The current level of expenses payable is a maximum of £50 per day, up to a maximum of £250 per course of donation

There are selected groups of women who may consider donating their eggs either anonymously to the egg donation pool or specifically to known friends or relatives. All potential egg donors should be made aware of the selection criteria adopted by the IVF centre. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

• All egg donors in the United Kingdom are altruistic volunteers (no incentive either financial gains or otherwise for the donor in giving her egg). In some states in the USA, egg donors are paid
• Egg donors may or may not be a known to the recipient couples.
• Egg donors should be healthy women, between the age of 18 and 35 years of age
• Preferably, they should have had healthy children of their own.
• No history of mental disorders.
• There should be no family history of genetic or inheritable diseases.
• The potential egg donor is required to undergo counselling to assess their suitability to become a donor, and to ensure as far as possible that the donor is psychologically stable in order to donate her eggs.

All prospective egg donors are screened according to the standards recommended by the regulatory bodies such as HFEA in order to avoid the risk of transmission of infection to recipient and offspring and avoid passing on genetic or inherited disease to the offspring.

Donors are screened for infectious diseases (HIV, Hepatitis B and C, Cytomegalovirus, syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia), genetic diseases (cystic fibrosis carrier and karyotype) and blood group and Rhesus status.

In addition, in appropriate ethnic groups, screening for sickle cell and thalassemia.

There is always the possibility that one or more of these tests may reveal a previously unsuspected condition or infection. We recommend that all prospective donors should consider this very carefully before giving their permission to the tests.