Women who donate their eggs are caring and giving, and want to help others who are struggling to conceive on their own. Egg donation is a scientific method that is relatively painless, and has great rewards both emotionally and financially.
If you are considering becoming an egg donor, this blog post will answer basic questions about the egg donation process, what to expect when you donate your eggs, where you can donate your eggs, egg donor pay, and more.
What is Egg Donation?
Egg donation involves a young, healthy woman donating her eggs so that others can create embryos to get pregnant and have a baby. Prospective parents using donor eggs are couples who have experienced infertility, intended mothers with genetic defects or pre-existing medical conditions, and LGBTQ+ individuals or couples.
Once donated, the eggs are fertilized through IVF, and the resulting embryos are transferred to either a gestational surrogate or the intended mother.
What is the Human Egg?
Let’s start with the basics. The human egg is the female reproductive cell and can also be referred to as an ovum (or ova in the plural). Once in the womb, it is estimated that a female fetus can have up to 7 million eggs! At birth, that number drops to about 1 to 2 million, and by puberty, it drops to about 300,000.
These are oocytes, or immature eggs. About 500 of these eggs will usually be released in a woman’s lifetime. During the menstrual cycle, 15 to 20 of the oocytes are matured within the ovaries and 1 (or 2 in the case of fraternal twins) are released at the time of ovulation. If the egg is not fertilized, it is released and dissolves, being shed along with the uterine lining—thus continuing the menstrual cycle.
What Are the Egg Donor Requirements?
Women considering egg donation must meet certain physical, health, geographic, and educational requirements. These requirements are put in place not to judge you or take your life, but rather to ensure that you are the right candidate for egg donation and that it is safe for you.
Here are some basic requirements that an egg donor must meet:
- Between 21-29 years old
- Have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of less than 29
- Be a US or Canadian citizen
- Have a healthy personal and family medical history
- Be comfortable giving yourself injections
For a full list of egg donor requirementsyou can visit our website.
What Can I Expect During the Egg Donation Process?
The egg donation process involves:
- Completing an application to egg donor agencies
- Matching with intended parents
- Participation in psychological screening
- Completion of legal and consent paperwork
- Going through the medical process, which ends with the retrieval of the eggs
During the the medical process, the donor undergoes “controlled ovarian hyperstimulation.” Here the donor is given drugs to produce up to 30 matured eggs. The extraction is done vaginally using a catheter while the donor is sedated. After the eggs are retrieved, they are mixed with sperm and fertilized in a laboratory, a process called in vitro fertilization (IVF). You can learn more about IVF from American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
The resulting embryos will be transferred to the woman who will carry the child to term—whether it’s the intended mother or a gestational surrogate.
Egg Bank vs Egg Donation Agency: What’s the Difference?
An egg bank is where a woman who wants to donate her eggs can go, be medically examined and—if approved—can begin egg retrieval medications. After her eggs are retrieved, she is paid, and her eggs are frozen until someone (or several people) are interested in buying her eggs to create embryos. A woman can donate her eggs to an egg bank without a specific recipient waiting for her eggs. With an egg bank, egg donors have more control over when they donate their eggs, and the timeline is often faster because they are not waiting to be matched with intended parents (egg recipients).
With the egg donation agency, the egg donor will apply to be accepted as an egg donor at the agency and will be added to the egg donor database to match the intended parents. At some egg donation agencies such as Circle Surrogacy, when an egg donor is chosen by the intended parents, both parties must be “matched,” meaning the egg donor has a say in who receives her eggs. .
Known Egg Donation
When working with an agency, the egg donor also has a choice if he wants to meet with the family and even possibly meet them and get updates about any child(ren) born from his donation. Although we offer anonymous and semi-anonymous donations, we encourage known egg donation. Not only does this allow for updates on the egg donor’s medical history, but we believe it is important to a child’s sense of identity to know their origins. You can learn more about benefit of known egg donation in our related blog post.
Should I Choose the Highest Paying Egg Donation Agency?
As with some things in life, having a higher price doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for you. Potential egg donors should evaluate egg donation agencies and what they offer in total, rather than just how much they can pay.
Egg Donation Agency Experience
Working with an experienced egg donation agency can help ensure a smoother, more successful journey. Egg donors will be supported by a team of professionals who will help coordinate their egg donation journey, answer their questions, and be a resource if anything happens. An experienced agency like Circle Surrogacy will coordinate your travel and local follow-up appointments and be your advocate.
Egg Donor Pay
Egg donors who partner with agencies are paid by the intended parents who are interested in being matched with them, not by the agency. Egg banks and egg donation agencies looking for egg donors may advertise large payment amounts; however, be sure to read the fine print and ask questions! Does an egg donor pay as advertised for an egg donation? Or is it a cumulative amount if you donate multiple times?
Egg donors who donate multiple times will usually receive a higher compensation per donation. This is because she is a “proven egg donor”—she has done an egg retrieval cycle that was successful in retrieving a large number of eggs. So how much should a first-time egg donor pay? On average, a first-time egg donor pays about $9,000 for their donation, and that increases if she chooses to make egg donations after that.
Finding Egg Donation Near Me
You can be an egg donor and live in any city in the United States! Egg donor retrieval is done at fertility clinics. Women who want to donate their eggs using an egg bank can visit a clinic near where they live to make their donation, while others may have to travel. Women who choose to donate to an egg donation agency will likely need to go to their intended parents’ clinic (which is in the US). The women use these short trips to travel and see the rest of the country (travel expenses paid for by the intended parents).
Is there a benefit to doing egg donation near where you live? If you want to stay local, yes. If you’re open to traveling, we say go for it—and enjoy the trip!
If you want to see if you qualify to be an egg donor, fill out our application. Or visit our website to learn more about what it means become an egg donor. If you are interested in egg donation, but still have questions, you can read our answers often asked from egg donors.
