Becoming an Egg Donor

Thank you for your interest in becoming an egg donor. We appreciate your willingness to consider helping others build families through donor egg in vitro fertilization (IVF). Tulsa Fertility Center’s experienced and supportive staff will continuously strive to ensure that your journey as an egg donor is both personally gratifying and medically safe, and we will personally guide you through the process to make it as smooth and successful as possible.
 

Minimum Donor Requirements

• You must be ages 21-29
• Smoking affects your egg quality and blood flow to your ovaries so you may not be a smoker or have previously smoked
• If you are adopted, we may require records from your biological family’s health history. This is a decision of the recipients if they want an adopted donor
• Your body mass index (BMI) must be within 5 points of your ideal body weight proportioned to height
• Drug testing is required and if you have ever been an IV drug user you will not be approved
• Alcohol and certain medications must be avoided during the stimulation- this will be about a 1 month time frame
• You need to be in good health
• Psychological testing will be required for approved donors prior to retrieval
• There will be a period of time you must abstain from intercourse during your stimulation cycle
• If you have an IUD it must be removed prior to stimulation at donors expense
• No STD’s, piercings or tattoos within the past 12 months prior to retrieval
• Appointments at our facility are crucial; you must make your appointments promptly at the time they are scheduled. Your cycle will be cancelled if you cannot arrive to your appointments in a timely manner
• You must provide your own transportation to/from appointments
• A driver will be required to/from retrieval as you will be recovering from anesthesia

The entire screening and treatment process may take up to 2-3 months from start to finish, but most of your participation takes place within the last 3-5 weeks during which you’re undergoing the actual IVF treatment. This is when the serious time commitment begins.
 

The Egg Donation IVF Treatment

• When your period begins we will start you on birth control pills for 14-21 days and synchronize the recipient’s menstrual cycle with yours. When you’ve finished taking the birth control pills you will have an ultrasound and some blood work done to make sure you are ready to begin the fertility medication.
   
• You will give yourself daily injections of gonadotropins (follicle stimulating hormones) twice daily for approximately 10-14 days. This medication will stimulate your ovaries to produce several follicles (the sacs containing the eggs). About 6 days later another medication called Ganirelix will also be added to prevent you from ovulating.
   
• You will come to TFC for more ultrasounds and blood draws during this time so that we can monitor your ovaries’ response to these medications. These appointments are required and are always scheduled between 8am-9am in the morning. During this 10-14 day period, you should plan on appointments approximately every other day.
   
• When your follicles have reached the proper size, you will give yourself one final injection called your “trigger shot”, of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Administering hCG is the final step in the egg maturation process and prepares them for retrieval. Approximately 34 hours later your eggs will be retrieved.
   
• The egg retrieval is a surgical procedure performed at the TFC office. During the retrieval a needle is passed transvaginally into each follicle to aspirate the eggs from inside of them. You will be given intravenous sedation for this procedure so that you won’t feel or remember anything. You will be closely monitored by the anesthesiologist and the physician throughout your procedure.
   
• Following your retrieval procedure you will stay in the recovery room for about 30-45 minutes before you are ready to go home. You must have a responsible adult with you to drive you home.
   
• Upon discharge following completion of your egg retrieval procedure and recovery you will be issued a check in the amount of $3,500 (once donors have been “proven,” this stipend increases).
   
• You will want to rest the remainder of the day of the procedure, but you will be able to return to normal activity by the following day.
   

How to Apply
 

If you have read the above information, you meet the minimum requirements, and feel that egg donation is for you, please complete our confidential application. The information you will need to provide includes:

• family history
• medical history
• sexual activity
• drug usage
• medication usage
• child bearing history
• educational background
• philosophy on life
• reasons for being a donor
• any special characteristics you have

Prospective recipients who are interested in choosing you as their egg donor will receive a copy of this application (not including your personally identifying information)--this is the only way they have to get to know you. For this reason, we ask you to take time to answer each as thoroughly as possible (you may need to consult with members of your biological family for any answers regarding their medical history about which you are unsure).

Please return your completed application, together with 2-3 photographs of yourself, to our office as soon as possible.
 

Application Review and Screening
 

All donor applications are reviewed promptly upon receipt. If your application meets our preliminary acceptance criteria our Donor Egg Program Coordinator will contact you, by phone, to invite you to an orientation meeting during which you and other egg donor applicants will learn more about the process. It is during this orientation that we will begin to get to know you, and help you decide if egg donation is right for you. In the event that your application is not accepted for any reason, we will notify you by letter.

Once you have attended the informational meeting, met the initial medical screening criteria and decided that you wish to participate as an egg donor candidate, your application will be made available to those of our patients who are interested in using an egg donor to assist them in their fertility treatment. All of our egg donors and recipients remain anonymous throughout the entire process. They will see only non-identifying information from your application, along with your photos.

When you are selected by one of our patients to be an egg donor, your next step is an interview with a psychologist for consultation and specialized personality inventory testing called MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory). Upon completion of testing and clearance from the psychologist you will undergo further medical and laboratory screening including: a pelvic exam, vaginal ultrasound, blood tests to screen for infections diseases, drug screening, cultures for gonorrhea and Chlamydia, and hormone blood tests to predict ovarian response. These tests can generally be completed in a single day.

All of the steps in the egg donation process summarized above will be explained to you in greater detail throughout the course of your participation in the egg donation process. And again, our Donor Egg Program Coordinator will instruct and guide you through every step along the way as only those actually experienced in treating infertility are uniquely qualified to do. We hope we will have an opportunity to work with you, and we look forward to receiving your application.