Becoming an Egg Donor

1 in 6 couples in the UK have difficulty conceiving. Some couples need donor eggs, but there is currently a severe national shortage of egg donors, particularly those of an ethnic minority. This shortfall in egg donors has resulted in extremely long waiting lists and some patients having to resort to travelling abroad for treatment. Recipients rely on the generosity of others to help them start a family. Click here to download the Egg Donor information leaflet

Frequently asked questions

Why are egg donors required?

• For the treatment of couples in which the woman is unable to produce her own eggs, either because her ovaries never developed normally such as for Turner’s syndrome, or she has had surgery to remove her ovaries or chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer or has had a premature menopause, or for older patients.
   
• Couples may decide not to use the woman’s own eggs to prevent passing on a severe life threatening genetic condition to her children such as haemophilia, Huntingdon’s chorea or Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy.
   

What criteria do you have to meet to become an egg donor?

• You must be between the ages of 18 and 35 years.
• You should live in the Leicestershire area or be able to commute regularly.
• You must have medical information about your family (for this reason people that have been adopted may not be eligible).
• You must be fit and healthy with no family history of mental disorders, or inherited conditions.
• You must have a body mass index of between 19-30 i.e. not be extremely underweight or overweight (this can decrease the chance of successfully retrieving eggs).
• Ideally you should have proven fertility and be a non-smoker but these are not essential requirements.
• You must not be at a higher risk of having acquired the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), such as an intravenous drug user.
   

Will I get paid?

Egg donation is essentially altruistic in the UK and so there is no payment as this is illegal. However there is no cost to yourself for the medical treatment and we are able to fully reimburse your travelling expenses, loss of earnings and childcare costs etc. on production of receipts (up to £50 per day to a maximum total of £750 per cycle of egg donation).

How do you become an egg donor?

• Initially you will have an appointment with one of our specialist fertility nurses to discuss the process, check your family medical history, answer any questions you may have and undertake some preliminary blood tests to check hormone levels and screen for certain illnesses.
   
• If you are eligible then you will attend a further appointment with our counsellor to ensure you understand all the implications of egg donation.
   
• Once we have all the blood test results and you have completed the necessary consent forms you are matched to a recipient on the queue and can start the cycle of donation.
   
• The recipient is not given any identifying information about you, only details such as physical characteristics.
   

What does donating entail?

• The process starts with a planning appointment with a consultant to discuss the timetable of events thoroughly, explain the procedures and risks occasionally associated with donation. Your safety however is paramount and the cycle would be cancelled rather than take any risks if the ovaries were over-responding.
   
• Daily injections of a drug for a fortnight to down regulate the ovaries so we can take control of how many eggs are produced. You will be shown how to self-administer these with an auto-injector pen and although this may sound daunting the needles are very tiny.

• Injections of a different type of drug over a period of about 12 days which stimulates the ovaries to produce more eggs than they normally would in a menstrual cycle. Your body’s response is monitored every 2-3 days by an ultrasound scan and a blood hormone test.
   
• A final injection of a trigger hormone which ripens the eggs.
   
• A small surgical procedure 36 hours later to remove the eggs from the ovaries through the vagina wall under heavy sedation. It takes about 20 minutes, does not leave scarring and you can go home the same day. Most women do not find the procedure painful at all and are able to resume normal activities after a couple of days.

• Although you cannot be informed of the identity of the recipients, you can be told how many recipients there were and if their treatment was successful which many donors find very rewarding.
   

What legal implications are there?

• You will not be legally, financially or socially responsible for any children resulting from your donation.
   
• You should be aware, however, that donations are no longer anonymous. This means that any donor-conceived children can apply to the government for identifying information about the donor from their 18th birthday.
   
• You can change your mind about donating at any point up until the resulting embryos have been used.