Become an Egg Donor

Information for prospective oocyte (egg) donors

Thank you for your interest in becoming an oocyte donor. Your participation will allow an infertile couple to experience pregnancy, birth and the joys of parenthood.

The recipients of donated oocytes are women whose ovaries no longer contain healthy eggs, women whose eggs may not function properly or women who carry a genetic disease which they do not want to transmit to an unborn child. Many of them have been undergoing fertility treatment and participation in the egg donation program offers them the only hope to achieve a pregnancy.
What’s Involved in Being an Egg Donor?

The procedure for obtaining eggs from the ovary is a complex one, but our doctors and nurses will guide you through it every step of the way.  Normally, during the menstrual cycle, the ovaries produce and release a single egg.  The egg donation process bypasses this mechanism and allows for the development of multiple eggs.  In order to accomplish this, the donor's ovaries are temporarily inactivated with a medication called Lupron. This medication is administered daily by injection and its mild side effects are quickly and completely reversible.  In order to allow multiple eggs to develop, daily injections of fertility drugs (FSH and LH) are needed and our nurses will instruct you how to self administer these medications.

Our doctors closely monitor the egg development with blood tests and ultrasound examinations of the ovaries, requiring approximate 5 visits to the clinic.  When eggs are mature, they are recovered from the ovary during a trans-vaginal ultrasound guided aspiration procedure. The procedure is performed under sedation.  The procedure requires 30 minutes to complete and the recovery period after the procedure is short. Although a donor is able to go home the same day, we ask that she rest at home for the remainder of the day and she should plan to be absent from work or school that day.  Some discomfort may persist for 48-72 hrs after the procedure.  After the retrieval procedure, the donor’s involvement with the program will be complete, but it may take 2-3 weeks for the effects of the medication to fully leave her body.
Once the eggs are obtained, they are fertilized (combined with sperm) and the developing embryos are placed in the uterus of the recipient after several days of growth in the lab.  We ask that the donor relinquish all claims to the eggs, embryos or children born as a result of the donation process and a consent form outlining this must be signed prior to the donation process.

What are the Risks Involved in Being an Egg Donor? 

Although rare, the risks of egg aspiration include bleeding and/or infection of the ovary. Occasionally, excessive enlargement of the ovaries in response to the fertility medication may require that the medication be stopped prior to achieving egg maturity. This occurs rarely, and is only done to make the process of egg donation as safe as possible for the donor.  The long-term consequences of egg donation are not completely known, however it is not expected to impact your subsequent fertility.  Although a possible association between the use of fertility medications and an increase in lifetime risk of ovarian cancer has been suggested, most recent studies do not show that there is a risk of future cancer.

Compensation

An egg donor’s compensation for full participation in the program will be $2,500. If it becomes necessary to cancel your donation cycle prior to the egg aspiration, your compensation will be prorated.

Application Process

If you are interested in becoming an egg donor, there are a few easy steps:

1. First, remember that we only accept non-smokers in the program.  Also, because IVF success rates decrease in overweight women, we only accept women who have a “body mass index” (BMI) that is less than 28.  Please click here to calculate your BMI. 
2. Please call us at (919) 966-1150 to request that a screening questionnaire be mailed to you, or you can download a copy of the questionnaire here.
3. Mail the questionnaire to:
   
   UNC Department of OB/GYN
   Clinic A, 1st Floor NC Women’s Hospital
   101 Manning Drive, CB # 7600
   Chapel Hill, NC  27599
4. A nurse will contact you after our receipt of a completed questionnaire.  If you pass the initial screening process, you will then have a visit with one of our doctors, nurses and psychologists.  During this visit, a physical exam, screening blood tests and cultures and psychological and genetic testing will be performed. This is done to make sure that you would be a medically and genetically appropriate donor for the recipient couple, and that the egg donation process would not be medically harmful to you.