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Have no ovaries or have had them removed
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Have had cancer treatment which has damaged the ovaries
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Are post-menopausal
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Are producing too few or poor quality eggs
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Have tried to conceive unsuccessfully using fertility drugs or IVF
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Have had several recurrent miscarriages
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Have a high risk of passing on a serious inherited disorder.
During the treatment, the recipient and egg donor’s cycles are synchronised with the use of hormone replacement therapy. If cycles cannot be synchronised, the donor’s eggs can be fertilised and any resulting embryos frozen for use in a future cycle.
The eggs are collected from the donor and fertilised with sperm from the recipient’s partner. Following fertilisation, the embryos are transferred into the uterus of the recipient.
The waiting list for donor eggs in the UK is long. The supply of eggs is dependent on benevolent women donating their eggs.
The most successful ways to recruit a donor are:
Couples and donors undergoing treatment with egg donation require extensive counselling before starting treatment, particularly in cases where the donor is known to the recipients.
Donors should be under the age of 36, and preferably have completed their own family. We try to ensure that both donors and recipients share similar physical characteristics such as skin colour, eye and hair colour. Donors are screened for HIV, Hepatitis B and C, Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Cystic Fibrosis, chromosome abnormalities and Syphilis. The donor undergoes a similar stimulation protocol as described in an IVF cycle, with egg collection usually being performed vaginally.
Children conceived as a result of egg donation will have access to identifying information about the donor at the age of 18.
