How Does Egg Donation Work?
The egg donation process is a delicate balance of precise timing and multiple moving pieces. From the process of choosing an egg donor and your egg donor's egg retrieval to transferring embryos, you may have questions such as “How long after egg retrieval is the embryo transfer?” or “What is the difference between a blastocyst and an embryo?” Below, we'll provide details about how egg donation works and what you can expect from the process.
What Is the Process for Using Donated Eggs?
Using donor eggs to grow your family occurs over several stages:
The process for using donor eggs begins with selecting an egg donor from our database and confirming your match.
2. Confirm Your Match
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The next step after matching is egg retrieval.
Prior to the egg retrieval procedure, the egg donor will give herself daily injections of fertility medication to help her produce multiple eggs. Once the eggs have matured, the egg donor does one more injection to release the eggs for retrieval (usually within 36 hours of the procedure).
The egg donor is sedated during retrieval, and her eggs are gently suctioned out through specialized needles inserted into the ovarian follicles. A vaginal ultrasound helps guide the surgeon throughout the procedure.
3. Egg Retrieval
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Eggs are fertilized immediately after retrieval.
After fertilization, the eggs are incubated and begin to develop over a 5-day period into a mass of undifferentiated embryonic cells called blastocysts.
These blastocysts form balls of rapidly dividing cells. The outer cells will take on a protective, nurturing function, while the inner cells will develop into an embryo 5 to 7 days later.
The best IVF outcomes typically occur with embryo transfer at the blastocyst stage.
4. Embryo Development
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The embryo transfer process is straightforward and rarely requires anesthesia or sedation. Either the recipient parent or gestational carrier will undergo the transfer. An abdominal ultrasound will guide your fertility doctor to locate the optimal placement for the blastocyst. They will then use a long, thin catheter to release the blastocyst into the recipient parent’s or gestational carrier’s uterus.
It can take up to 10 days before your fertility clinic can confirm whether the embryo transfer has successfully resulted in a pregnancy. During this time, the blastocyst will have hatched out of its outer shell and begun attaching to the uterus. In the fertility world, this time frame is referred to as “the two-week wait”.
The implantation process follows, with the blastocyst maturing into an embryo and secreting human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) into the bloodstream. The recipient parent (or gestational surrogate) will take a blood test (usually around Day 9 after embryo transfer), and high levels of hCG in her blood will confirm the pregnancy.
5. Embryo Transfer
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The embryo transfer process is straightforward and rarely requires anesthesia or sedation. Either the recipient parent or gestational carrier will undergo the transfer. An abdominal ultrasound will guide your fertility doctor to locate the optimal placement for the blastocyst. They will then use a long, thin catheter to release the blastocyst into the recipient parent’s or gestational carrier’s uterus. It can take up to 10 days before your fertility clinic can confirm whether the embryo transfer has successfully resulted in a pregnancy. During this time, the blastocyst will have hatched out of its outer shell and begun attaching to the uterus. In the fertility world, this time frame is referred to as “the two-week wait”. The implantation process follows, with the blastocyst maturing into an embryo and secreting human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) into the bloodstream. The recipient parent (or gestational surrogate) will take a blood test (usually around Day 9 after embryo transfer), and high levels of hCG in her blood will confirm the pregnancy.
If you are already working with a fertility clinic, please let us know. If not, we are able to refer you to one of our trusted partners for fertility care. Our team will work closely with your clinic team throughout the process to ensure that you are supported every step of the way.
1. Establish Yourself With a Clinic
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What You Should Know About Using Donor Eggs
Egg donation opens up new paths to parenthood for countless individuals and couples. Before deciding to find your ideal egg donor, most recipient parents will want to weigh their options. To guide you in making an informed decision, we outline the pros and cons of using donor eggs below.
Pros and Cons of Egg Donation
The decision to use donor eggs to grow your family is a highly personal one, and you should consider it from every angle. Below, we share the various benefits and implications associated with donor egg use.
Pros of Using Donor Eggs
Donor eggs offer several advantages to our recipient parents, including:
High Success Rates
Egg donors must meet stringent criteria and pass rigorous physical and psychological evaluations before they are allowed to donate their eggs. This careful screening ensures that recipient parents receive eggs from a young, healthy donor and have the highest chances of growing their family.
Donor Selection
Using an egg donor allows recipient parents to choose the woman who will contribute half of their baby’s biology—using the selection criteria that are most important to them.
Some parents may want a donor who physically resembles them; has particular talents they admire like athleticism, musical ability, or a knack for languages; or possesses certain genetic traits, such as a negative carrier status for an inheritable medical condition.
With Everie, we believe in the mutual match between egg donors and recipient parents and the careful, long-term consideration for their donor-conceived children. Giving donors and parents the opportunity to say “yes” to one another and setting the groundwork for what a child can know about their origins creates the most intentional and satisfying outcomes for everyone involved.
Pre-Implantation Genetic Testing
Prior to the embryo transfer procedure, the embryologist may conduct certain tests to ensure that the chosen blastocyst has no chromosomal abnormalities.
Genetic Connections
In most cases, male recipient parents can use their sperm to fertilize the donor eggs, giving them a direct genetic link to their donor-conceived children.
If recipient parents choose to expand their family further, they can also use any remaining eggs from their donation cycle to give their child a biological sibling.
Frequently Asked Questions
Egg retrieval is a minimally invasive procedure that uses ultrasound imaging to guide the fertility specialist in collecting the eggs. The egg donor’s ovaries have been hormonally stimulated to increase her egg production; these eggs are aspirated through a thin needle and then placed in a culture medium.
We will cut to the chase here. Yes, egg donors do have a genetic connection to any children conceived from their eggs. They do not, however, have any parental relationship or responsibility to the children.