They’ll explain the entire process and answer any questions.

Counseling is scheduled for both you as the donor and the intending recipient (and your respective partners, if applicable). Counseling is mandatory, and is an opportunity to discuss donor treatment and its implications.

They’ll get to know you, and your medical history. This can include screening blood tests and a medical health questionnaire.

Once consent has been signed alongside the counselor, an egg collection will be organized. Being an egg donor involves the first two steps of an IVF cycle to have the eggs collected. For donors who know the recipient, if the intention is to transfer fresh embryos, the donor’s stimulated cycle is coordinated with the intending recipient’s cycle. Before an egg collection procedure, you will be given medication to grow the number of eggs normally produced. This is monitored (as for an IVF-stimulated cycle) by the fertility specialist and will usually involve two to three vaginal ultrasound scans. The donor egg collection procedure is then performed under a light general anesthetic and takes around 20 minutes. It is usually performed in our associate hospitals.

Your eggs will then be donated to the recipients. The process for them involves collecting the sperm and fertilizing the donated eggs in the laboratory. One of the resulting embryos is transferred into the recipient who will carry the pregnancy, and any other viable embryos are frozen for potential future use. After two weeks, a pregnancy test is carried out by the recipient.