Egg Donation Commonly Asked Questions
Egg donation shouldn't affect your ability to conceive. The average number of eggs retrieved typically ranges from 10 to 20 eggs for a single donation. Healthy, fertile women in their 20s have hundreds of thousands of viable eggs, so egg donation won't significantly deplete your egg supply.
Everie egg donors must be between the ages of 21 and 29 because this age is when a woman is old enough to feel informed and empowered by the experience and her eggs are of the highest quality.
It takes about 2 to 3 months for the body to fully recover from the process of donating eggs, which is typically the amount of time most clinics require donors to wait.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) recommends limiting the number of stimulated donor cycles to 6. This guideline was set to protect the donor's health and prevent different families in a single geographic area from having too many blood-related children.
Benefits and Considerations of Egg Donation
Everything we do at Everie promotes thoughtful decision-making. When you are well-informed and supported, egg donation has the power to be not only financially rewarding but emotionally fulfilling as well.
Considerations To Keep In Mind
Make sure you have the time and availability
Egg donation does require your time. In addition to taking the time to fill out the applications, once selected, egg donors will have to go to numerous doctor’s appointments, which are generally relatively short, but increase in frequency the closer you get to retrieval. You will also have to travel to the clinic where your eggs will be retrieved.
Understand that anonymity is not realistic
While we offer our donors a choice of four different donation types — Known, Semi-Known, ID Release, and De-Identified Egg Donation — anonymity is no longer a realistic expectation.
The internet today is too powerful with all of the social connections and access to DNA databases. We advise our donors: it’s no longer a matter of if you’ll be found by the donor-conceived child(ren) but when.
If you are willing to continue providing updated medical information throughout your life but hope and believe that you will never be found, you may want to reconsider being an egg donor.
If you can be comfortable that your identity is bound to one day be exposed and that it will help shape a donor-conceived child’s origin story and sense of self, than we are more than excited to help you on your journey to changing someone’s life forever.
Countless benefits (There are so many “pros” to egg donation!)
Donating with Everie has almost endless benefits and positive impacts on your life.
You will make a lasting impact on someone else’s life by helping them grow their own family. You are forever changing the course of their life by helping them through egg donation.
You will maintain your voice and power of choice throughout the entire process. At Everie, you will be in control of your impact — where your eggs go, what kind of cycle type you want to make, and the donation type you want.
You will also be compensated for your contribution. We have seen our donors use their compensation to travel the world, pursue business ideas, and invest in their education.
While it’s natural to wonder about the pros and cons of any major decision, rest assured the benefits of egg donation greatly outweigh any considerations we ask you to keep in mind!
We want you to have all of the information and resources you need in order to decide if egg donation is the right path for you. Part of that decision-making process might include making a list and asking yourself: What are the pros and cons of egg donation?
While we would hesitate to use “pros and cons” language, because, really, there are no “cons” to egg donation, we will tell you that there are considerations to think through, for which our experienced team will prepare you.
There are, however, most certainly “pros,” or benefits, to egg donation, such as making an impact on someone’s life, changing the script on what egg donation of the past looked like, and being compensated for doing something amazing.
Top 3 Things To Know About Egg Donation (at Everie)
If you're considering egg donation, consider these three things
At Everie, we continuously work toward a future where donor-conceived individuals know their medical histories and have access to their personal histories. This makes us different from every other egg donor program. This is why we stand out.
Where we stand out from typical agencies is in our encouragement of disclosed donations and mutual matching. While we will always advocate for our donors to express themselves and their comfortability by choosing the type of donation they feel best suits them and their needs, we caution those who want to choose De-Identified Donations with the expectation of never being located.
In today’s world, we just cannot guarantee anonymity. In fact, anonymity, as it once was, no longer exists. Because of online DNA databases – such as 23 and Me – and the vast interconnectedness proffered by social media, donors can no longer remain anonymous.
We’d like you to know that you have options beyond an anonymous donation, and we’ll support you in your discovery and choice, no matter what you select.
1. There’s No Such Thing As Anonymous Egg Donation
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Where we stand out from typical agencies is in our encouragement of disclosed donations and mutual matching. At Everie, we allow our donors and recipient parents to choose from four different types of egg donations: Known, Semi-Known, ID Release, and De-Identified. While we will always advocate for our donors to express themselves and their comfortability by choosing the type of donation they feel best suits them and their needs, we caution those who want to choose De-Identified Donations with the expectation of never being located. In today’s world, we just cannot guarantee anonymity. In fact, anonymity, as it once was, no longer exists. Because of online DNA databases – such as 23 and Me – and the vast interconnectedness proffered by social media, donors can no longer remain anonymous. We’d like you to know that you have options beyond an anonymous donation, and we’ll support you in your discovery and choice, no matter what you select.
Something you may not have yet considered when deciding whether or not to become an egg donor, is that there will be a child(ren) in the world who shares your DNA, who potentially looks like you or sounds like you, and might even have some of your personality traits.
Our donors are remarkable women, who recognize their ability to powerfully impact other people’s lives and change them for the better. They also understand that their part in this journey is not a one-time transaction but a life-long connection.
Our donors understand that the donor-conceived children may become curious about their origins and have a right to know from where and who they come, fostering a strong sense of identity, and providing access to genetic information and biological medical history.
2. Donor-Conceived Individuals Are Curious About Their Origin
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Something you may not have yet considered when deciding whether or not to become an egg donor, is that there will be a child(ren) in the world who shares your DNA, who potentially looks like you or sounds like you, and might even have some of your personality traits. Our donors are remarkable women, who recognize their ability to powerfully impact other people’s lives and change them for the better. They also understand that their part in this journey is not a one-time transaction but a life-long connection. Our donors understand that the donor-conceived children may become curious about their origins and have a right to know from where and who they come, fostering a strong sense of identity, and providing access to genetic information and biological medical history.
This is how Everie is different from every other egg program. Our process of mutual matching allows our donors to choose the recipient parents of their egg donation. It is important to us that our donors have a say in the process. We want them to be in control of their own narrative.
Recipient parents select the donor(s) from the database that best match their preferences.
We will then reach out to the donor selected and inform them that the recipient parents are interested in using their eggs. Mutual matching ensures you get to make the final decision. Your eggs will only be used if you agree to have them go to the interested recipient parents.
We will be your sounding board, your confidant, and your greatest advocate. Donors’ voices deserve to be heard, and we, at Everie, will make sure of that.
3. Egg Donors Have a Choice in Who They Match With
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This is how Everie is different from every other egg program. Our process of mutual matching allows our donors to choose the recipient parents of their egg donation. It is important to us that our donors have a say in the process. We want them to be in control of their own narrative. Recipient parents select the donor(s) from the database that best match their preferences. We will then reach out to the donor selected and inform them that the recipient parents are interested in using their eggs. Mutual matching ensures you get to make the final decision. Your eggs will only be used if you agree to have them go to the interested recipient parents. We will be your sounding board, your confidant, and your greatest advocate. Donors’ voices deserve to be heard, and we, at Everie, will make sure of that. While there are other egg donor agencies out there, the Everie difference is that we believe in the power of your voice. In addition to being compensated monetarily for your contribution, we want our donors to feel emotionally appreciated and valued as well. Without women like you, so many others would miss out on the opportunity to grow their families.
Choosing to help others grow their family through the gift of egg donation is one of the most rewarding and generous connections you can create. Through encouraged disclosed donations and mutual matching, we ensure donors as well as recipient parents have a say in with whom they match. We believe in creating a solid foundation on which meaningful and lasting relationships can be built.
Choose What’s Best For You!
As with every aspect of the egg donation process, we want you to choose the timeline and type of relationship with the recipient parents that works best for you!
Our goal is to always guide and equip our donors with the knowledge to choose the type of donation that best suits them and their needs. Our donors have a voice and a choice, and we make sure it’s heard each step of the way.
Fresh vs. Frozen Donor Eggs
Our goal is to always guide and equip our donors with the knowledge to choose the type of donation that best suits them and their needs. From deciding the type of relationship you want with the parents to exploring the differences between fresh and frozen egg cycles, our donors have the power to control their own narrative.
Both fresh and frozen donations will begin with you filling out an egg donor application. The Everie team will review your application and:
Connect with you to answer questions
Educate you on our different donation types
Determine with you the egg donation cycle for you: fresh or frozen.
Both cycle types are rewarding ways to make an impact on someone’s life. The timing of the donation and the order of events and milestones are what will differ. Below, we share the steps for each type of cycle.
Mutually match with parents
6.
Compensation
5.
Retrieval
4.
Begin medical donation process
3.
Provide information and build a profile in donor database
2.
Application and acceptance
1.
Frozen Egg Donation
Compensation
7.
Retrieval
6.
Begin medical donation process
5.
Mutually match with parents
4.
Wait to hear from potential recipient parent matches
3.
Provide information and build a profile in donor database
2.
Application and acceptance
1.
Fresh Egg Donation
Why We Prefer Disclosed Egg Donations
While our priority is always you and your freedom of choice, we believe disclosed donations (Known, Semi-Known, or ID Release) lead to the best possible outcomes, fostering empowered and transparent experiences for you, the recipient parents, and the donor-conceived individual once they are born.
Something else to consider is that you, as a donor, can choose to be one, two, or all of these options. You don't have to choose just one. This gives us the flexibility to meet people where they are at. If a recipient parent is unsure about a disclosed donation and the donor is okay with it, we can put in their contract that, if the parents change their mind later on, they can come back to us and ask if the donor is still willing to share their information.
Rest assured we will be with you every step of the way. Unlike other donor banks, we will continue to support you through this process even after the donor-conceived child is born. We believe egg donations are not transactional exchanges but journeys to be traveled together.
Types of Egg Donation
When you choose to be an egg donor, you are choosing to make a meaningful, everlasting impact on someone’s life.
With Everie, you are in the driver’s seat. You not only get to choose what type of egg donation you want to make, but you choose the recipient parents as well. Whether you opt for the most open form of donation or the most private, you are guaranteed to be part of a warm, supportive community of professionals who value you, your thoughtfulness, your health, and your choice.
Egg donation helps people become parents when they don't have their own viable eggs. This assisted reproductive technique involves removing some of a woman's eggs from her body during a minor outpatient procedure and using them to create an embryo that is placed in another woman's body.
The eggs can be fertilized right away (fresh) or frozen for a later date. The egg donor has control over the level of information disclosed about her with the following types of donations: known, semi-known, ID release, and de-identified. Continue reading to learn more.
Let’s break down what each type of donation is:
Known Egg Donation
When you choose to be a Known egg donor, that means you have the intent to share identifying information with the recipient parents and/or the donor-conceived child at some point in time.
What it is:
Good to know:
This is the donation type we promote in alignment with the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) because we know questions are likely to arise in the future, and we want to do what we can to support those answers to be found. More and more donors come back to the table with questions about the implications of their donation. Likewise, parents are often unprepared for the questions they get from their childen as they get older and are curious about their origins. Lastly, it’s for the donor-conceived individuals that we promote and advocate for disclosed donations. Known donations leave it open for the donor-conceived to not only learn about their donor and maybe even meet them one day, but to potentially meet their donor siblings or other people conceived from the same donor gametes as well.
Semi-Known Egg Donation
Choosing a Semi-Known donation type means you are willing to meet the recipient parents but may not initially want to provide them with your contact information. This doesn’t mean an exchange of information is permanently off the table, but it allows you to have some privacy while also getting to know them. (And if you decide, at some point, that you do want to share personal information, we’ll help you do that!)
What it is:
Good to know:
You and the parents will agree on the parameters of your Semi-Known donations type. Choosing to go with a Semi-Known donation allows the donor and parents to still meet in person, assuring one another that they are who they claim to be, while still granting the donor some privacy. The donor-conceived child will also have access to medical records when they are of appropriate age.
ID Release Egg Donation
When you choose an ID Release donation, you are opting out of meeting the recipient parents and having any contact information shared with them. Your identifying information will, however, be released if a donor-conceived child at legal age requests details about who you are.
What it is:
Good to know:
ID Release protects you from having any immediate contact with the parents or donor-conceived child while they are under age. In fact, it gives you an eighteen-year cushion before someone might reach out to you. This might be the right choice for you if you know you do not want to be part of the parents’ journey in any way, but you’d be happy to give information to somebody created from your hands if they become curious.
De-Identified Egg Donation
Like ID Release, this donation type indicates that you do not want any contact with the parents nor do you want any personal information shared with them. It also means that none of your identifying information will be released by us at any point — not even once the donor-conceived child is of legal age. The only way your information will be released is if directed by law or decree.
What it is:
Good to know:
The thing to understand about both ID Release and De-Identified donations, however, is that, in this day and age, there really is no anonymity anymore. In fact, you might even call a De-Identified donation a bit of a misnomer. It’s no longer a question of if you will be found but when. If you come to this process and with the mindset that you will forever remain anonymous, never to be found or confronted by the donor-conceived child, we would advise you not to become a donor. Although we will never unlawfully release your information, we cannot guarantee that you will not be found through other channels, and this is just a realistic look at the power of the internet.
