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Full Glossary
Assisted Reproduction; Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)
Medical procedures and techniques used to help couples and individuals grow their families such as in vitro fertilization egg donation and surrogacy.
Blastocyst
A rapidly dividing group of cells that will develop into an embryo; in IVF blastocysts are cultured from fertilized eggs in a lab setting and then transferred into the recipient parent or gestational carrier’s uterus.
Donor Egg IVF
A form of IVF that uses donated eggs rather than the recipient parent’s eggs.
Donor-Conceived Individual
An individual conceived from donated eggs and/or sperm.
Egg Bank
An egg donor program that specializes in frozen egg donation.
Egg Donor
A woman who voluntarily donates her eggs for use in assisted reproduction.
Egg Donor Agency
An egg donor program specializing in fresh egg donation.
Egg Donor Program
An assisted reproduction entity that facilitates the donation of eggs by matching an egg donor with recipient parents.
Egg Recipient
The recipient parent or gestational carrier who will be carrying the pregnancy.
Egg Retrieval
A surgical procedure to collect multiple mature eggs for use in IVF.
Embryo
A developing human baby from the period of uterine implantation to its progression into a fetus.
Embryo Transfer
A procedure wherein a fertilized egg at the blastocyst stage is inserted into the recipient parent or surrogate’s uterus.
Embryologist
A medical professional who specializes in fertility treatments.
Fertility Clinic
A specialized medical facility that provides assisted reproductive services including IVF and other fertility treatments.
Fetus
An unborn baby that has developed from an embryo.
Fresh Egg Donation
A type of egg donation in which eggs are fertilized immediately after retrieval. The developed blastocysts can be transferred within days of retrieval or preserved for future use.
Frozen Egg Donation
A type of egg donation where frozen eggs are cryogenically preserved upon retrieval and thawed and fertilized at a later date.
Gestational Surrogacy
A type of surrogacy in which a woman (the surrogate or “gestational carrier”) carries a baby for someone else and has no genetic link to them.
Gestational Surrogate
A surrogate who does not contribute biologically to the child she is carrying. Also known as a gestational carrier.
IVF Cycle
The collective stages of treatment to retrieve and fertilize eggs and develop and transfer an embryo for assisted reproduction.
Implantation
The process by which a blastocyst attaches itself to the uterine wall thereby beginning the egg recipient’s pregnancy.
In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
A medical procedure that fertilizes eggs in a lab setting and cultures them into blastocysts for use in assisted reproduction.
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)
An IVF technique used on thawed frozen eggs that involves manually injecting a single sperm directly into an egg.
Legal Parentage
Parental rights and responsibilities established either biologically or through a formal legal process such as adoption pre-birth orders or surrogacy and egg donor contracts.
Pre-Implantation Genetic Testing (PGT)
A series of tests completed before the embryo transfer procedure; these tests look for chromosomal abnormalities and genetic disorders and can even detect the embryo’s gender.
Recipient Parent(s)
The individual or couple who receives the donor’s eggs to grow their families through assisted reproduction.
Sperm Donor
A man who voluntarily donates his sperm for use in assisted reproduction.
Surrogacy
An arrangement wherein a woman carries and gives birth to a child on behalf of another individual or couple.
Surrogacy Agreement; Surrogacy Contract
A legally binding agreement between the surrogate and the individual or couple who intend to have legal parentage over a surrogate-born child.
Surrogate
A woman who carries and gives birth to a child on behalf of an individual or couple.
Vitrification
The “flash freezing” process to cryopreserve eggs and blastocysts for future use.
Assisted Reproduction; Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)
Medical procedures and techniques used to help couples and individuals grow their families such as in vitro fertilization egg donation and surrogacy.
Blastocyst
A rapidly dividing group of cells that will develop into an embryo; in IVF blastocysts are cultured from fertilized eggs in a lab setting and then transferred into the recipient parent or gestational carrier’s uterus.
Donor Egg IVF
A form of IVF that uses donated eggs rather than the recipient parent’s eggs.
Donor-Conceived Individual
An individual conceived from donated eggs and/or sperm.
Egg Bank
An egg donor program that specializes in frozen egg donation.
Egg Donor
A woman who voluntarily donates her eggs for use in assisted reproduction.
Egg Donor Agency
An egg donor program specializing in fresh egg donation.
Egg Donor Program
An assisted reproduction entity that facilitates the donation of eggs by matching an egg donor with recipient parents.
Egg Recipient
The recipient parent or gestational carrier who will be carrying the pregnancy.
Egg Retrieval
A surgical procedure to collect multiple mature eggs for use in IVF.
Embryo
A developing human baby from the period of uterine implantation to its progression into a fetus.
Embryo Transfer
A procedure wherein a fertilized egg at the blastocyst stage is inserted into the recipient parent or surrogate’s uterus.
Embryologist
A medical professional who specializes in fertility treatments.
Fertility Clinic
A specialized medical facility that provides assisted reproductive services including IVF and other fertility treatments.
Fetus
An unborn baby that has developed from an embryo.
Fresh Egg Donation
A type of egg donation in which eggs are fertilized immediately after retrieval. The developed blastocysts can be transferred within days of retrieval or preserved for future use.
Frozen Egg Donation
A type of egg donation where frozen eggs are cryogenically preserved upon retrieval and thawed and fertilized at a later date.
Gestational Surrogacy
A type of surrogacy in which a woman (the surrogate or “gestational carrier”) carries a baby for someone else and has no genetic link to them.
Gestational Surrogate
A surrogate who does not contribute biologically to the child she is carrying. Also known as a gestational carrier.
IVF Cycle
The collective stages of treatment to retrieve and fertilize eggs and develop and transfer an embryo for assisted reproduction.
Implantation
The process by which a blastocyst attaches itself to the uterine wall thereby beginning the egg recipient’s pregnancy.
In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
A medical procedure that fertilizes eggs in a lab setting and cultures them into blastocysts for use in assisted reproduction.
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)
An IVF technique used on thawed frozen eggs that involves manually injecting a single sperm directly into an egg.
Legal Parentage
Parental rights and responsibilities established either biologically or through a formal legal process such as adoption pre-birth orders or surrogacy and egg donor contracts.
Pre-Implantation Genetic Testing (PGT)
A series of tests completed before the embryo transfer procedure; these tests look for chromosomal abnormalities and genetic disorders and can even detect the embryo’s gender.
Recipient Parent(s)
The individual or couple who receives the donor’s eggs to grow their families through assisted reproduction.
Sperm Donor
A man who voluntarily donates his sperm for use in assisted reproduction.
Surrogacy
An arrangement wherein a woman carries and gives birth to a child on behalf of another individual or couple.
Surrogacy Agreement; Surrogacy Contract
A legally binding agreement between the surrogate and the individual or couple who intend to have legal parentage over a surrogate-born child.
Surrogate
A woman who carries and gives birth to a child on behalf of an individual or couple.
Vitrification
The “flash freezing” process to cryopreserve eggs and blastocysts for future use.
Frequently Asked Questions for Donors
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.
The recommended number of times a woman can donate her eggs is 6 times.
Some donors, once they have successfully helped someone grow a family, wish to make another donation. It is an incredibly fulfilling feeling, and we understand why such caring and remarkable women want to come back more than once. That being said, you might wonder, what are the limitations of donating eggs?
The American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), the leading nonprofit multidisciplinary organization dedicated to the advancement of the science and practice of reproductive medicine, has concluded there is a finite number of times a donor can undergo a donation cycle.
ASRM has advised limiting the number of a donor’s stimulated cycles to 6 times. Furthermore, they recommend limiting the successful number of donations from a single donor to no more than 25 families per population of 800,000. This recommendation is made in an effort to limit concerns regarding too many blood-related children from different families in one geographic location. The best way to do this will be more reliant on the number of donation cycles than anything else.
Yes, you can still donate eggs if you’ve had a hysterectomy. We would, however, carefully investigate the reason for the hysterectomy at such a young age to determine if you would qualify to be an egg donor.
Yes, you can still donate your eggs if you have had your tubes tied! Tubal ligation only affects your fallopian tubes, not your ovaries and egg production.
You will be under sedation and feel no pain for the actual egg retrieval procedure, which takes just under 30 minutes to complete! Some women experience mild cramping or light bleeding in the days immediately after the process, but these side effects will not last.
Really, the only part of the egg donation process that might be uncomfortable is the at-home hormone injections. A nurse will teach you how to properly self-administer them, and the needle is so small that most women do not report any significant discomfort.The short answer is yes! We understand that, for many women, birth control offers the safest method of protection against unwanted pregnancy, and we would not want you to be deterred simply because you are taking precautions.
So, yes, you can donate your eggs if you are on certain forms of birth control, such as birth control pills, the nuva ring, the patch, and any IUD. However, you must have non-copper hormonal IUDs removed if you are matched before cycling.
If you are currently using a non-accepted form of birth control for at least 6 months before being eligible to donate. As with all things regarding your healthcare, always consult your OB/GYN before changing your birth control.
Yes, you can donate without health insurance. The recipient parents will be responsible for purchasing an insurance plan that covers all the egg donation expenses.
Your ovaries typically release one mature egg per month. The FSH injections you will self-administer stimulate your ovaries to increase the number of eggs that mature in a single cycle.
The exact number of retrieved eggs will vary from woman to woman. However, the average number retrieved in a single donation ranges from 10 to 20 eggs. Healthy, fertile women in their 20s have hundreds of thousands of viable eggs, so these retrievals don’t even come close to taking all of your eggs.
At Everie, we use a technological enrollment system called EDC Nexus. This database will house all of your medical history and information. Additionally, EDC Nexus will email you every 2 years, prompting you to update your medical information. This allows us to account for any new developments in your health.
Occasionally, a donor might develop a medical condition or receive a diagnosis after completing their donation. We never want our donors to feel guilty about updating their Nexus database with “bad news”, or that they are letting down the recipient parents or donor-conceived child(ren). We want our donors to be as transparent as possible so that recipient parents and donor-conceived children have all the necessary information about their medical history to prepare for any obstacles that might come their way.
Your honesty and commitment to updating your medical information is vital to the genetic inheritability of the donor-conceived child.
Frequently Asked Questions for Parents
Everie supports every person’s path to parenthood. Whether you are partnered, single, heterosexual, LGBTQIA+, facing fertility issues, or consciously choosing to grow your family a different way, there is a home for you here.
Egg donation is the process whereby an egg donor voluntarily provides some of her eggs for use in another individual or couple’s family building.
The egg donor undergoes hormone stimulation to produce multiple eggs that are then retrieved in a minimally invasive procedure.
Typically, choosing an egg donor involves reviewing donor profiles in a database and looking for someone who resonates most with you. At Everie, you can see photos and videos of our donors and learn about their medical and family history, education, interests, and more. You will also get to read in their own words why they are choosing to donate their eggs.
Please read our article about egg donor selection criteria to learn more about finding the right egg donor for you.
Everie thoroughly vets our egg donors. All of our donors are young, healthy women who have passed comprehensive evaluations of their physical and psychological health to ensure they are suitable candidates for egg donation.
Egg donors typically do not have any parental rights over children conceived from their eggs. However, an egg donor agreement or other contract can help establish a recipient parent's legal parentage in a binding, written form.
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.
On average, 10 to 20 eggs (or more!) can be retrieved during egg donation.
Intended parents can typically expect 30% to 50% of fertilized eggs to reach this stage of development.
Using a thin catheter, the embryologist uses ultrasound imaging to transfer a blastocyst into the recipient’s (or gestational carrier’s) uterus. It will take nearly 10 days to discover whether the blastocyst has developed into an embryo and successfully implanted into the uterine wall, confirming a pregnancy.