Thinking of Becoming an Egg Donor? What You Should Know

Egg donation is a meaningful and purposeful way for one person to enable another to experience what may otherwise have been impossible: bringing a baby into the world. Egg donors make a commitment to be part of something that will positively and meaningfully impact the lives of others. For egg donors, giving the gift of parenthood can be incredibly rewarding and egg donation usually comes with financial compensation. Here is a guide on what to expect and what you should know before taking this important step.

Egg donors play an important role in creating the origin story of donor-conceived children. Donors will be empowered to choose the type of egg donation with which they are most comfortable – from a Known relationship to a more private donation, like identity-release. They will also choose to participate in a fresh or frozen egg donation, each cycle type has its own benefits. Other normal questions that donors may have may be around legal responsibilities and how donating might impact our future fertility, here we’ll educate and guide donors to find the best path forward.

Known

When you choose to be a Known egg donor, that means you have the intent to share identifying information with the recipient parents and/or the donor-conceived child at some
point in time.

Semi-Known

Choosing a Semi-Known donation type means you are willing to meet the recipient parents but may not initially want to provide them with your contact information. This doesn’t mean an exchange of information is permanently off the table, but it allows you to have some privacy while also getting to know them. (And if you decide, at some point, that you do want to share personal information, we’ll help you do that!)

Identity Release

When you choose an ID Release donation, you are opting out of meeting the recipient parents and having any contact information shared with them. Your identifying information will, however, be released if a donor-conceived child at legal age requests details about who you are.

Something else to consider is that you, as a donor, can choose to be one, two, or all of these options. You don’t have to choose just one. This gives us the flexibility to meet people where they are at.

Many potential donors wonder if they’ll have legal or other responsibilities to any child born from their donation. The short answer is: no. Donors are not legally or financially responsible for any resulting children, and they waive any parental rights. An attorney will be appointed to you by the agency, where you will create a legal agreement that releases you from any responsibilities to the eggs for any future children.

Egg donation involves hormonal treatment and the retrieval of multiple eggs, which naturally raises questions about the impact on your future fertility. The good news is that egg donation does not affect your egg reserve or future ability to conceive.

The average number of eggs retrieved typically ranges from 10 to 20 eggs for a single donation. Healthy, fertile women in their 20s have hundreds of thousands of viable eggs, so egg donation won’t significantly deplete your egg supply.

Women who choose to donate their eggs with Everie are not only self-confident, bright women who value the power of being in control of their choices, but also understand that egg donation is not simply a transaction but a life-long connection. Women who choose to donate their eggs are motivated by the desire to make a lasting impact on others hoping to grow a family. Some requirements to be an egg donor are:

If you meet the basic qualifications, the next step is a thorough screening process. This initial application requires providing personal, medical, and family medical history details. Once you are approved to move forward, you will complete background check/ education verification, lab testing, psychological screenings, and a physical examination. These steps are designed to ensure that you’re both physically and mentally prepared to become a donor.

Once you pass the screening process, the team will decide what donor avenue you are eligible for:

At Everie, we give the opportunity to allow our donors to choose between a fresh donation or a frozen donation, pending you are eligible for either option. Typically, a donor will start with a frozen cycle, which allows you to become experienced before moving forward with a fresh cycle. Some of the noticeable differences between a fresh or frozen donation are, timeline and number of recipient parents. A frozen cycle will have a quicker turnaround time, as you will not have to wait to be chosen by an intended parent(s). However, for a frozen cycle, your donation will be split into lots and could be bought by multiple recipient’s versus for fresh you would be donating to a single set of recipients. One thing to keep in mind, as a first-time donor, your compensation is set the same for both types of donations.

The egg donation cycle itself involves hormonal treatments and regular monitoring over the course of roughly two weeks.

In addition to the prospect of positively changing someone’s life, many women who consider egg donation are often motivated by the promise of competitive compensation — which is completely justified! In fact, we have watched our donors open their own businesses, travel the world, pay off student loans, and invest in furthering their educational pursuits, all thanks to their compensated egg donations. At Everie, we understand the weight of your decision and believe you should be properly compensated for your noble donation to help others build their families.

Our payment for first-time donors is $9,000.

We want you to feel adequately compensated for your time, your energy, and your tolerance for experiencing some discomfort and a small disruption in your normal activities all for the greater good of helping others. If you decide to make additional donations to help more families experience the joy of parenthood, we will work with you to set a higher compensation for these subsequent cycles. We offer this increased compensation after the first donation because you are now an experienced donor, and prospective recipient parents can now review results from your previous egg retrieval, such as the quantity and quality of eggs previously retrieved.

Egg donors have the ability to make a remarkable impact on families: bringing a baby into the world. That, in itself, is so rewarding. Can you see yourself donating your eggs to help others?