Choosing a right egg donor agency takes time and research. As you consider different egg donation programs, you should ask the agency some relevant questions. This will help you make the final decision.
Egg Donation is a process through which a woman, i.e. an egg donor, provides her eggs to
another woman (mostly the intended mother) for assistive reproduction.
The fertility egg donation process thus involves retrieving eggs from an egg donor. The egg
donor is selected after careful screening and fulfillment of egg donor requirements. The primary requirement of an egg donor – the woman, should have healthy and normally functioning ovaries.
After the egg retrieval, the eggs are artificially fertilized in the IVF (In-Vitro fertilization) lab using donor sperm or the sperm of the intended father. Post fertilization and growth of embryo (that usually takes 3-5 days), the resulting embryo is transferred to the uterus of the intended mother or the carrier. If pregnancy is confirmed, the receiving woman thus bears a child and carries it to the full term of pregnancy.
The fertility egg donation process has helped many infertile couples become parents through assistive reproduction. A couple or the intended parents who want to grow their family through egg donation must first select an egg donation agency.
Choosing The Right Egg Donation Agency – 10 Questions To Ask
Choosing the right egg donation or IVF agency is the first step towards success. Every agency has an egg donor database that contains the screened details of egg donors of different ethnicity, age, religion, and other differentiating factors.
So, the quality of egg donors, to an extent, depends on the egg donation agency as well.
Thus, before you select an agency, ask the following 10 questions from them. Note down the answers as it will help you make the final choice.
1. How long have you been in the fertility egg donation business? What is the strength and
availability of donors at your agency? How many successful donations did you record in
the previous year(s)?
2. How do you screen your egg donors? What are the grounds on which you categorize
your donors? Can intended parents see the screening result of the egg donor(s)? Do
you support independent screening by a third party or doctor recommended by the
intended parents?
3. What is the fee of the egg donation process? Is there any upfront fee? Is the fee
inclusive, or you charge separately for different methods? Do you have any refund
policy? If yes, what is the condition of a refund?
4. Can you find a donor with a specific color, characteristic or physical trait or ethnicity?
5. How do you pay the egg donors? Even though intended parents have nothing to do with
this, but this shows whether the agency follows ethical practices or not.
6. Does the donor receive any instruction or training on self-administering the fertility
medicines?
7. Can the agency facilitate a meeting between the intended parents and the egg donors?
8. Can the donor provide any references of previous successful deliveries through IVF? If
yes, ask at least three references.
9. Does the agency maintain records of all donors and is it stored securely? Can intended
parents cross-verify the information?
10. Does the agency keep a record of resulted births from egg donation and the location of
these children?
