egg donor?

Question

i watched a t.v program the other night about a couple who couldnt have kids because the womens eggs were no good. it made me really upset and i felt so sorry for them. does any one no about becoming an egg donor or has anyone become an egg donor.

Answer 1

I have not been an egg donor but I did look into it several years ago. I also have been involved on the other side of fertility treatments, and was considering using a donor at one point, and that learning process was more recent. Here's what I can tell you.

Egg donations can happen through individual fertility clinics and also through businesses that are devoted to matching donors and donees; you can contact either to see what their procedure is. The procedures do vary. I can tell you that, as a donee, what you're looking for is a donor who participated with a program that has high standards in terms of a donor's medical and psychological background and overall health. A donor will be required to undergo some testing, answer questions, etc. -- the idea being, of course, to screen for donors who (knowingly or otherwise) have risk factors that could be passed on to their genetic offspring, or risk factors that would make them unsuitable because they're unlikely to have "good eggs." For this reason there are also age limitations on who can be a donor -- the upper limit of that is usually something like 32? Don't quote me on that. But I do remember realizing I was "too old" to be a donor at one point.

What's involved in the process? Well, to harvest multiple eggs a woman has to hyperstimulate. It's essentially the same thing that women who are undergoing IVF without a donor have to do in the first part of that cycle: use fertility medication to stimulate your ovaries so they produce more than the usual one egg per cycle. Those drugs are injected (you do it yourself, daily; and honestly it's not that big a deal, although I recognize people have varying levels of comfort when it comes to shots!) During that time you are monitored very closely, and ultrasounds and bloodwork are performed to see how many follicles are developing, how rapidly they're growing and how close they appear to be to maturity, and how your hormone levels are (your estrogen levels are also an indicator of how many follicles you have and how close to maturity they are). When the follicles reach a certain size you will inject a medication that essentially tells your body to wrap up the process and release the eggs; that injection is carefully timed (as in, to the minute, basically), and roughly 36 hours after that injection the eggs are retrieved. How long retrieval takes can vary a bit of course, depending on how many follicles there are, but it's usually only on the order of about 15 minutes; you're under anesthesia at the time.

There are risks associated with hyperstimulating. To be precise, IVF and egg donation involve "controlled ovarian hyperstimulation," and one of the risks is OHSS, or, Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome. It can be serious, but if you are monitored well it's unlikely that you'll experience OHSS. Nonetheless, after retrieval you will likely be sore, bloated, and generally uncomfortable. But here some of my own experiences won't help in the explanation, because of course I went on to take other drugs to prepare my body for pregnancy, and you won't be doing that!

Incidentally, as I write about OHSS, it comes to mind that women with PCOS are at a greater risk for overstimulating, so if you do have PCOS you may not be a suitable donor.

I'm sorry to have gone on for so long. I hope I didn't make it sound like an awful and dangerous procedure -- it does have its risks and it is involved, but it's a wonderful thing (in my opinion) and is so needed! For women needing donors, an additional frustration (as if infertility isn't enough) is the lack of donors. Especially if you don't live on the west coast. I think your desire to consider being a donor is wonderful -- regardless of whether you choose in the end to do it. (One more thing along that line: although it has, as I said, been several years since I looked into being a donor, there was compensation at the time and I'm almost certain there still is, although I'm sure it depends on whose program you participate in. I can't say the money would put anyone through college, but when I was in my 20s it was enticing enough.)

Hope that helps...and that I didn't put you to sleep!

Best of luck.

Answer 2

If you contact the NHS they will point you to the nearest hospital you will be tested for several things including if you are a carrier of cystic fibrosis if you are they may not accept you. I think you need to be younger than 35 too. They will use a variety of drugs to stimulate you ovaries for a good egg collection and will scan you often to see if the folicles are ripe and ready for collection. Good luck to you in you quest.

Answer 3

As far as I know you can donate eggs through the NHS if you are having fertility treatment yourself. You don't have to pay (as much) if you are prepared to help other couples this way. You should get in touch with private fertility clinics, numbers online is you yahoo search it, or the NHS and you can donate once you've gone through tough selection process. You don't get paid for it though but you sound like you'd like to do it because you care. bless you x

Answer 4

i understand one human being who donated eggs and they were eggs left over from her own infertility remedies. a million. She did not opt to really throw them away 2. sure, because of this she interviewed countless couples before figuring out to donate her eggs to one. this isn't an selection maximum clinics will allow. 3. The association became that the newborn will be able to achieve the counsel at 18. 4. actually her husband and a couple of friends (consisting of me). 5. The couple became unable to conceive and performance used up the eggs, so it wasn't meant to be. the most important concern with egg donation is an identical with sperm donation. no longer an excellent type of issue about how the newborn will sense about it. in accordance to modern-day study, children of sperm donation, at the same time as they ultimately locate out, typically have a similar topics as adoptees. although, it really is unusual for kids of sperm donation to be informed that this became how they were conceived. My chum stumbled on out after the inability of life of her father and mom that her father isn't her organic and organic father. She has no concept if she is the end results of an affair or sperm donation. No concept about a million/2 her wellbeing historic previous. yet another ingredient to contemplate is that destiny companions would check out your donation in a very adverse gentle. I wasn't attentive to this till someone posed this question about a sperm donor and the really adverse comments that some posters would have adverse to their companion in the journey that they stumbled on out that they had donated sperm in the previous.

Answer 5

Bless you, and good luck,