What Is Egg Donation? A Guide for Intended Parents
​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. Continue reading to learn more. ​
Egg Donation Timelines
To help you set realistic expectations about your family-building timeline, we’ve outlined egg donation steps and timing below.
Please keep in mind that the timeline may vary depending on individual circumstances, fertility clinic protocols, and other factors that may arise.​
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Your fertility specialist will be able to give you more personalized guidance, but recipient parents can generally expect the embryo creation process to take around 2 to 3 months.
While some recipient parents will be fortunate enough to find an egg donor among their family members or friends, most will need to search through a database to discover their best match.
Our egg donors have been thoroughly screened based on genetic risk factors, physical and psychological health, and other qualifying factors such as age, minimum education level, and family medical history. We have a large, diverse pool of vibrant and healthy young women who would love to help you grow your family.​
Matching With an Egg Donor
Duration: Varies
To prepare for the egg retrieval procedure, the egg donor will give herself daily injections to stimulate her ovaries to produce multiple mature eggs.
Shortly before the egg retrieval procedure (usually 36 hours), the egg donor will receive a final “trigger shot” to stimulate the release of the eggs.
Egg Retrieval Preparation
Duration: 1 to 2 months
Egg Retrieval
Duration: 1 day
Egg retrieval is a 20-to-30-minute outpatient procedure performed under mild sedation that uses ultrasound imaging to guide the fertility specialist in collecting the donor’s eggs.
Fertilization and Embryo Development
Duration: 5 days
Fresh eggs are fertilized using conventional IVF methods and can immediately begin the embryo development process.
The embryo transfer procedure only takes 10 to 15 minutes and does not require sedation or anesthetic. However, the recipient parent (or gestational carrier) has been preparing her body to receive the embryo with daily medication for 1 to 2 weeks prior to the procedure.
The fertility specialist performs the transfer using ultrasound imaging. They determine the optimal placement for the blastocyst(s) and then inject it into the uterus.
Embryo Transfer
Duration: 1 day
​Following the embryo transfer, the recipient parent (or gestational carrier) will continue to take medication to support the implantation process. Then begins what is known in fertility communities as “the two-week wait” until testing is performed.​
The egg recipient will take a blood test (BETA test) —usually after 9 days—to confirm whether the implantation has been successful. High levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) will indicate a pregnancy.
Post-Embryo Transfer Waiting Period
Duration: 10 to 14 days