What is the Egg Donation process?
In a normal menstrual cycle, one egg matures and, at ovulation, is released from an egg-containing sac (a follicle) on the ovary. In egg donation, the goal is to obtain several mature eggs. You will be prescribed medication to stimulate your ovaries to mature more eggs than normal (called “controlled hyper stimulation”). The medications are similar to the hormones that your body produces, but at much higher doses. These medications must be injected (either under your skin or into a muscle). Treatment will start on a specific day of your cycle and continue for about ten days.
The fertility egg donation process involves retrieving eggs from a woman who has normally functioning ovaries. Following egg retrieval, the eggs are fertilized in the in vitro fertilization (IVF) lab using sperm from the receiving couple’s partner. Following IVF, the resulting embryos are transferred to the uterus of the woman who wishes to carry the baby. If a pregnancy is established, the receiving woman becomes the gestational mother carrying the developing baby through the full term of the pregnancy and childbirth – with all the joys of experience that this affords. With egg donation as an infertility treatment, hundreds of couples have become parents with assistance. A couple may choose to know the identity of the woman donating the eggs, and vice versa, or the parties may choose anonymity.
