What Is Egg Donation? A Guide for Egg Donors
Egg donation is an assisted reproductive technique that 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. It is a meaningful and purposeful way for a young, healthy woman to help others who don’t have their own viable eggs to become parents.
Pros and Cons of Donating Eggs
When you are well-informed and supported, egg donation has the power to be not only financially rewarding but emotionally fulfilling as well.
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, and being compensated for doing something amazing.
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.
Countless Benefits (Egg Donation Has So Many "Pros"!)
Donating with Everie has almost endless benefits and positive impacts on your life, including:
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 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!
Egg Donation Commonly Asked Questions
While not actually "cons,” the egg donation process places some demands on you. You will need to give yourself injections to encourage multiple eggs to mature at once, and you may experience bloating and irritability during this time. You will need to go to multiple doctor appointments to monitor your progress and have a minimally invasive medical procedure under sedation to retrieve your eggs. While you can choose to keep your identity anonymous, today's technology makes it possible for donor-conceived children to find you someday. In spite of these drawbacks, the gift you give others is substantial.
Yes. Donors are typically put under intravenous (IV) sedation which helps them relax and minimizes discomfort. This type of anesthesia wears off quickly and has minimal side effects after the procedure.
When it comes to female fertility, vitamin D is helpful for both egg donors and IVF recipients. For egg donors, vitamin D improves functioning of the ovaries to help with egg development and ovulation.
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.
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.