This is the first article in the series Step-By-Step Procedures Used in Egg Donation. For more in-depth information about the procedures used in egg donation, go to Part 2.
I’ve found that even though many women know what an egg donor is in a general sense, they wish they knew more specifics about how to become an egg donor and the steps involved. In this post, you will find out about the major phases of an egg donation cycle and the medical and non-medical procedures used in each phase.
Step One: Recruitment. The first step in your journey of becoming an egg donor is finding an egg donor agency or fertility clinic that has a donor egg program. Not all fertility clinics have donor egg programs, but most work with egg donor agencies. Click here to find fertility clinics and egg donor agencies in your area. Once you have chosen which organization you would like to work with, it’s time to apply. Written applications are very long. They ask about the medical history of you and your family, your high school GPA, college GPA, employment history, clubs you belong to, volunteer activities, personal interests and hobbies. They even ask about your history of sexually transmitted diseases and infections. Once you have submitted your application, they will let you know if you make a good candidate or not. If you do, you can go to the second phase: screening.
Step Two: Medical and Psychological Screening. The second step is all about making sure you will make a good egg donor. While each clinic and agency has slightly different criteria, every one will have you see a physician for a check-up. the physician will take your heart beat, take your blood (testing for HIV, hepatitis, and other infections), measure your height and weight, check your blood pressure, and do a pelvic examination. Although it’s not required, many agencies perform psychological screenings. The purpose of these is to assess your psychological and mental readiness to become an egg donor. They will ask you about your motivations for wishing to be an egg donor and about your feelings about the possibility of being genetically related to someone else’s child. The goal is to make sure that you are fully prepared for the journey ahead and can make fully informed consent. These examinations are very thorough, so I’m probably skipping some important information. If I am, let me know in the comments below.
Step Three: Selection by Donor Egg Recipients. Once you have been accepted and screened for medical and psychological readiness, your profile will become part of an egg donor database that egg recipients look over. (Click here for an example of an egg donor database.) This can be a very difficult phase, as you are literally waiting to be chosen. Sometimes you will be chosen quickly and sometimes not. It all depends on what qualities the aspiring parents are looking for and how well they match up to your profile. Since there seem to be shortages of Jewish, Asian-American, and African-American egg donors, I am guessing that if you fall into one of those categories, you may be chosen faster than a white egg donor. There just aren’t any hard and fast rules about this.
Step Four: Writing a Legal Contract Between the Egg Donor and Recipients. The fourth step in becoming an egg donor is all about clarifying parental repsonsibility between the parties involved. You will be asked to hire a lawyer to represent you and write up a legal contract between you and the donor egg recipients. Don’t worry about the cost, as this is usually paid for by the recipients. This is also the time when you and the recipients will have to decide if you want to remain anonymous or known to the parents and any children born from the procedure. Nowadays, many women chose to have “open egg donation,” meaning they wish to have their identities revealed if the child wishes to know the egg donor’s identity when they become a legal adult. All egg donation contracts include the relinquishment of parental rights on the part of the egg donor.
This is the first article in the series Step-By-Step Procedures Used in Egg Donation. Click here to go to Part 2.
For more tips and advice on becoming an egg donor, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Donating Eggs.
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