How Egg Donation Works

Egg donation is a fantastic form of fertility treatment for women who cannot produce fertile eggs on their own. In general, this process involves removing an egg from a donor to insert into a recipient carrier. The egg is fertilized with the desired father's sperm and then placed inside the woman to grow. If everything goes well, the woman can go through an entire pregnancy with the donor's eggs, eventually calling the child her own. Here is a breakdown of some of the specific steps involved with this program so you can determine if it is right for you.

Prescreening Donors

Every egg donation program is a little different, but they all start with a prescreening application. Potential egg donors must fill out minor pieces of information about their health and educational background to determine if they can be accepted into the program or not. Those that pass the initial requirements are then sent to a more lengthy application with in depth details about the donor's medical history, family history, like, talents, body type and more. If everything works out with that application, the person can become an official part of the donation process.

Consulting with Patients

Being selected as a donor is only part of the battle. The next part of the egg donation program happens on the other end of the spectrum with the potential parents. A couple wanting to participate in a egg donation program can go through a consultation process to address any questions they have about the procedure and donors. After they know this is right for them, they can then begin screening the pictures and profiles of the donors in the system until they find a woman whose eggs match what they are looking for.

Setting up the Donation

Once a couple is paired with a donor, the donor must then go through some medical procedures to get her fertility to its prime level. At this time, the donor will also undergo medication to get her on a compatible ovulation cycle to the prospective mother. The eggs are eventually extracted from the donor's body, then fertilized and placed in the other woman. Then the egg donation program should produce a developing baby. There is a 60% success rate for this procedure so far, and it has not been around long at all. Each year brings new developments and new chances for women to have the babies they want.

Tips for Choosing the Right Donor

If you decide to go through egg donation, you have the ability to choose who you want to receive your eggs from. This ensures that the baby that develops inside of you will hopefully inherit traits that you want in a child raised in the original home of the jam session. Selecting the right donor is crucial to the success of the process as a whole, so it is in your best interest to plan out this decision the best you can. Here are some tips that may help you pick out the perfect person to get your eggs from:

• Physical Features: One aspect that most potential parents look at in an egg donor is her physical features. You should be given several pictures of the potential donor so you can see what she looks like, and then you can determine if you want your child to take on those features as well. You might select a woman of a certain ethnicity or a woman that looks similar to the female in the couple. You could also look into women with certain eye or hair colors or women of a certain height. Analyzing the physical parts of the candidates though is just the first step in this part of egg donation.
• Intellect: Intelligence can be a big factor in finding good donors. You obviously want your child to grow up academically strong, so you should look at the intellectual history of your possible candidates. Women with master's degrees from the best online universities make excellent prospects because you know they are devoted to their education. You may be able to view SAT and ACT scores from your candidates for egg donation, as well as academic achievements and grade points from high school and college. On top of all of this, you can get an idea of what subjects your donor did well with in school, hoping that your baby may take on the same strengths.
• Medical History: You will be given a detailed report of your potential donors' medical histories to make sure you avoid any serious issues or concerns. For instance, if the man in the relationship has a strong line of heart problems in his family and the donor does as well, chances are the baby will suffer with heart issues later on in life.

Figure out which combination of factors will best suit your needs and desires for your child, and then you can select the perfect person for your egg donation.