Egg donors provide a wonderful service for women who cannot achieve pregnancy using their own eggs.  Donors are usually needed by women who have diminished ovarian reserve or ovarian failure often caused by advancing age. Other causes of poor egg quality include genetic disease, cancer therapies, congenital defects, and others.

Egg donors are healthy young women who decide to donate their eggs to another couple for use in an IVF cycle. The egg donor will undergo ovulation induction with FSH to cause her ovaries to produce multiple eggs.  During this time, the recipient mother receives hormones to sync her cycle with the donor’s.  Her endometrium must thicken and become more vascular to support a developing embryo.

The donor comes to our practice several times during the FSH stimulation phase for ultrasound examination and estradiol hormone levels.  These procedures confirm that the follicles (each containing one egg) are developing properly and help prevent potential drug side effects.

Once the donor’s eggs mature the retrieval is scheduled.  The eggs are withdrawn from the ovaries through the back of the vagina using ultrasound guidance under general anesthesia. There is little or no pain associated with the procedure.

Once the eggs are retrieved they are taken to the laboratory where they are combined with the partner’s sperm. The resultant embryos are incubated until ready for transfer into the mother’s uterus.

We maintain a cadre of donors at Baystate and there are numerous donor egg agencies.  In some cases, patients provide their own donors which may be a close family friend or family member (though this is often complicated). Donors at our program must meet certain qualifications to include:

• Age 21 to 33 years
• Non-smoker
• Generally healthy family health history
• BMI< 30
• Day #3 FSH and antral follicle count showing good prognosis
• Flexible schedule to accommodate occasional AM monitoroing
• Must meet FDA eligibility screening

Donors are compensated $7,000 to offset the expenses, time, and inconvenience of the egg donation process.