Become an Egg Donor

... and help a couple achieve their dream of parenthood.

The Basics of Donating with The Donor Solution

At The Donor Solution, we understand that the decision to become an egg donor can be exciting, interesting, complicated, and anxiety-causing all at once. With the help of our experienced Registered Nurse and dedicated Donor Coordinators, you can rest assured that your questions will be answered and that we will provide the best possible quality of care throughout your donation experience. As professional fertility specialists, we are here to help you navigate the entire egg donation process and are available 24/7 to make sure you are fully and completely cared for.

To start the egg donor process, all we require is a preliminary donor application. After we review this application, qualified candidates will be contacted by email and asked to complete a more detailed follow-up application. After review of this secondary application, we will contact you to set up a personal appointment to discuss our egg donation programs and get to know each other better.

What is Egg Donation?

Egg donation is a process in which a woman provides her own healthy eggs to assist a couple or individual who cannot otherwise conceive. Donor eggs are typically used by fertility doctors to create embryos that can later be implanted in the uterus of the woman who intends to carry the child. If the intended mother is unable to carry a baby to term herself, one or more embryos may be implanted in a gestational surrogate.

Donating eggs to couples who cannot conceive is a beautiful way to help others experience the many joys of parenthood. In addition to the sense of fulfillment a donor gets from helping intended parents achieve their family goals, donors are given financial compensation in exchange for their time and efforts throughout the process.

Egg Donor Requirements

At The Donor Solution, we work with egg donors to provide the most comprehensive and stress-free egg donation process anywhere. We work with our potential egg donors from the very start to identify if they will be a good fit for our egg donation program. Our egg donor requirements below allow you to identify the criteria we are seeking for our donors and allow you to make the choice to move forward with the preliminary application.

In order to become an egg donor, you must meet the following requirements:

Between the ages of 20 - 28
Desire to help someone create a family
Minimum of one year of verifiable secondary education, university, college or community college. We prefer college students at the Junior level and above or college graduates, graduate students.
Non-smoker, social drinker only, no illegal drugs
Height and weight proportional
Psychologically and physically healthy with a healthy family history
No current or previous substance abuse
Have both ovaries
No contraceptive implants or hormonal IUD’s
No family history of genetic disorders that can be inherited such as Cystic Fibrosis
No use of psychoactive drugs such as those used in depression or ADD/ADHD
Able to take the necessary time off from work and school to attend monitoring appointments, informational sessions and the actual egg retrieval. This process takes about 6-10 weeks and involves about 6-8 clinic visits spread out over that time frame.

Become an Egg Donor Now

Fill out our preliminary on-line application today. We will review it and if you qualify for our program, you will receive a link to complete the full application.

APPLY NOW!

The Egg Donation Process

When an egg donor is chosen by a couple, she first goes through medical screening to confirm that she is healthy enough to provide genetic material and undergo the procedure.

Screening typically includes blood and hormone level tests, an ultrasound, and a psychological evaluation to make sure the donor is emotionally and mentally prepared. If additional information is needed after the initial screening, further diagnostic or genetic tests may be requested.

Once the donor is medically and psychologically cleared for donation, she will be given a series of injections to help the eggs develop and mature. Once doctors determine they are ready for donation, the eggs are removed with a specialized needle in a short ultrasound procedure. This process usually takes no longer than a half hour.

Donation takes approximately 6-10 weeks from the time a couple chooses a donor to the time the eggs are retrieved. Throughout the process, the donor works with an attorney who will take care of all necessary legal documents. The Donor Solution will provide this attorney at no charge.

For additional details and a better understanding, please keep reading, as we explain in detail our full egg donation process.

The Egg Retrieval Process

While there are numerous steps with the egg donation process, at The Donor Solution, we are here with you every step of the way. The egg retrieval process can sound daunting, but we work with you to make the entire procedure as comfortable as possible.

Egg retrieval takes place under a form of sedation, so you will not experience pain. The technique that is used to collect eggs is called an ultrasound-guided transvaginal aspiration.

Through this procedure, a needle is attached to an ultrasound probe, and is then inserted into the vagina. One of our partner IVF clinic physicians uses this ultrasound to locate the ovaries and then the ovarian follicles. The inserted needle is used to puncture the ovarian follicle while a gentle suction technique then removes the egg and the fluid surrounding the egg.

The egg retrieval procedure is performed on both ovaries, and usually only requires about 15 minutes.

Breaking Down the Egg Donation Process

As an egg donor, you may have many questions about what the egg donation process entails. There are multiple steps that are involved in the process, however, with The Donor Solution, our team is here to guide you through every part of becoming an egg donor. We provide you with a safe and easy donation process and are available 24/7 to meet your travel needs, your health needs and your concerns.

After a series of applications and interviews from The Donor Solution, you may be selected to be in the egg donor pool. Once an egg donor recipient selects you to become “HER” egg donor various steps generally follow.

Step 1: Initial Screening

The initial screenings include: blood tests, hormone level testing, transvaginal ultrasound, meetings with the clinics donor coordinator. The medical portion is very much like a normal well woman exam and the nurse coordinator is there to answer your questions about their clinics protocols and procedures.

Step 2: Medical Screening and Evaluation

After the clinic receives the results of all of your tests and you are psychological cleared, then additional medical and genetic testing may or may not occur. Every clinic has their own “recipe” that they follow to have a successful outcome.

Step 3: Legal Processing

Legal documentation is part of the egg donor process. An attorney is provided for you at no charge as part of the donation process.

Step 4: Synchronization and Stimulation

Through this phase, a series of injectable medications will be given to you and are required for certain periods of time. During a consultation with The Donor Solution, we will explain all of the medications that may be required for you to success donate eggs.

Step 5: Egg Retrieval

When the eggs have matured, the egg retrieval can then occur. An ultrasound guided needle aspirates the eggs. The entire procedure only takes about 20-30 minutes. The whole process takes about 6-10 weeks depending on the clinic.

Potential Risks of Egg Donation

As with any major medical procedure, egg donation carries some degree of risk. Donors may experience negative side effects as a result of the medications administered to help the eggs mature, and the egg retrieval procedure itself has rare complications that include vaginal bleeding, abdominal bleeding, intestinal injury, infection, and ovarian torsion.

Compensation for Egg Donation

The amount of compensation an egg donor will receive varies from case to case, but typically sits somewhere between $5,500 and $10,000+. This amount may be affected by factors such as the following:

Prior donation experience
Travel requirements
Missed work (loss of income)
Missed classes
Other losses/sacrifices related to donation process

Your compensation requirements are made by YOU! We provide guidance but you decide what you require to complete the egg donation process.

Learn more about compensation

Frequently Asked Questions from Potential Egg Donors

The egg donation process can seem overwhelming, but our team at The Donor Solution is here to answer all of your questions and guide you through the entire process.

With The Donor Solution, you can rest assured that you are working with a team that truly cares about your health and well-being.

Some of our most frequently asked questions about egg donation include:

How old do I have to be to become an egg donor?

How much will I get paid to donate my eggs?

What is the egg donation process?

The egg donation process through The Donor Solution begins after you have finished our testing and interview process. Your anonymous profile is placed on our secure donor database and prospective Intended Parents are able to view your profile and photos. Once you have been selected we send your contact information to the Intended Parents clinic and they will contact you to begin the screening process.
The entire process from selection to egg retrieval takes about 6-10 weeks depending where you are in your menstrual cycle at selection. Most clinics require you to be on birth control pills in order to “synch” up with the Intended Mothers own menstrual cycle.
Your first visit with the clinic will usually involve a physical exam, much like a well woman visit at your own physician, an ultrasound of your ovaries and uterus to make sure you are a good candidate and have great looking ovaries and a lot of labs for genetics, infectious disease as well as time to discuss the entire process with the nurse at the clinic who handles their egg donors.
You will also have an appointment with a psychologist to discuss your feelings about egg donation and the long term implications for you and your future family, if any, and to discuss the entire process. Sometimes this is the day of your initial evaluation and other times it is done via appointment when it is convenient for you.
After this initial appointment, it is “hurry up and wait” time! The clinic is waiting for your lab results to come back from the lab and you are waiting for your period so you may start birth control pills to synch up with your recipient.
Once your period starts and your lab results are in, the nurse will set you up with a calendar for the actual donation cycle. Every clinic has their own “recipe” of who they run an egg donation cycle but generally you will be on birth control pills for 3 weeks and then stop them to start the Stimulation Medication for the cycle. It is imperative that you tell the clinic of any conflicts like weddings or vacations you have that would interfere with your “calendar”.
Once you start the injection portion of the cycle, it goes very fast. You will have had injection teaching either with a nurse at the clinic or with one of our staff in our Houston or Dallas offices. The injection portion is about 10-14 days. During this time you will be seen about every 2-3 days in the clinic for an ultrasound and lab work to see how your body is responding to the medication and how your eggs are growing. You will need to be prepared to be available sometime between 7am and 10am on those mornings and you will be missing work and school at that time. It is usually about 3-4 times over the entire 10-14 day donation cycle and one or two may even fall on a weekend. The appointments are usually quick and you are on your way.
The final part of the process is the actual egg retrieval. This is performed after about 10 days of injectable medication. You will be notified that you are ready for the trigger shot that matures the eggs and 35 hours later you will have the actual egg retrieval.
The morning of the retrieval you will need to bring a companion to drive you home or back to your hotel if you are doing a travel cycle. The entire retrieval process is very quick! You will change into a hospital gown, meet with the anesthesia person (MD or Nurse Anesthetist) and have an IV started for conscious sedation and the entire retrieval process only takes 30 minutes or less.
You are usually in the recovery room about an hour and then can go home to lay on the sofa, watch TV and eat chocolate for the rest of the day. You should feel back to “normal” within one to two days with soreness to be expected and your period should come within 10-14 days. You are VERY fertile yourself during this time so beware! We like to compensate our donors the day of the procedure, so we can either direct deposit your check in your bank account or mail it to you that day.