Common Questions for Egg Donors
Become a Surrogate
Common Questions For Egg Donors
The Greatest Gift You Could Ever Give
Wanting to be an egg donor is one of the greatest gifts you could ever give someone. This gift you are about to give is a miracle waiting to happen. It is kindness beyond expression. Creative Love works with families that have infertility issues that have lead them to egg donation, same sex couples or individuals who cannot create their families without the assistance of an egg donor. The decision to become an egg donor is an important one, and not one to be made solely for financial gain. To become an egg donor you do not have to have children. Your body mass index “must” be in line for your height and weight. Having undergone a tubal ligation or an abortion in the past does not interfere with you becoming an egg donor. What’s important is that you must be committed to the entire egg donation process and be able to demonstrate integrity and dependability throughout your egg donation cycle.
The primary benefit to women who donate eggs is knowing that they have helped another woman achieve pregnancy. Some women are motivated by the fact that Egg Donors pays for their time and effort allowing them to pay for college, pay off student loans, or start to build a savings.
The stimulation of the Donors ovaries the month they’ll be donating to produce multiple follicles. The next step is the retrieval of the eggs by ultrasound-guided catheter. These eggs are then fertilized and placed in the Intended Mother or Surrogate Mother. A pregnancy test is taken approximately 2 weeks later after implantation.
Once you have been screened and approved by Creative Love Egg Donor Agency, your profile will be viewable on our password-protected donor database. Once an Intended Parent selects you, you will begin the screening process with your DAY 3 testing to check your fertility levels. Once you have passed all screening, completed your psychological evaluation and all legal contracts are in place you will be ready to synchronize your menstrual cycle with the Intended Mother’s cycle under a doctor’s care with the use of birth control pills for approximately three weeks. During this time, if you live in an excess of over 75 miles from the intended parents IVF clinic a doctor located near where you reside will closely monitor you. After the birth control pills you will then begin your hormone injections for 2 weeks until retrieval. You will then be scheduled for the procedure to remove, or retrieve, the eggs from your ovaries. The outpatient retrieval is done in a doctor’s office using a lV sedation. Most donors are able to return to school or work the following day. The egg donation process typically takes 2 -4 months from the time of matching until the retrieval.
A typical egg donation cycle takes 8 – 12 weeks from the time that you are matched with the intended parents until the retrieval. During this time you are going through pre-screening and completing all other necessary parts to the cycle like your psychological evaluation, genetic consult and having the legal contract drafted and put into place. You then take birth control pills for 2 – 3 weeks. After you then begin your hormone injections for 1 – 14 days. During the time on the hormone injections is when you begin to see the Dr. Typically on 6 – 8 different early morning appointments. (30 minutes)
As with any medical procedure, there are always health risks involved. If a donor is over-stimulated she may run into the risk of Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS), which is quite rare. This occurs in less then 1-3 % donors. This happens when the ovaries become hyperstimulated due to increased hormones and then begin to secrete fluid into the abdomen. OHSS occurs in mild, moderate, and severe forms. Your frequent visits to the medical office will allow your doctor to carefully monitor any signs of OHSS. The treatment for OHSS is observation, rest, and fluids.
We believe that every cycle is unique in it’s own way. Donor compensation is not given in exchange for your eggs or live births. Donor compensation is for your time, commitment from the donation and retrieval. First time donors compensation at Creative Love is typically $10,000 – $12,000. A donor can donate up to 6 times so on average a donor could be compensated around $65,000 – $70,000 for helping create several different families.
Higher fees may be offered to donors who meet extraordinary standards.
Women turn to egg donation for many reasons. Below are a few of the reasons.
Premature ovarian reserve
Sterility problems as a result of chemotherapy
Poor egg quality
Underlying health issues not allowing them to go through an egg retrieval
No, you do not need health insurance to become an egg donor. Your health is most important to us. We’ll place a special egg donation insurance policy at the start of the stimulation process that will cover any adverse events related to the stimulation and/or egg retrieval.
Yes, the egg(s) are removed from the ovaries.
All healthcare costs are covered by the intended parent(s). Being an egg donor you’re required to have a clear pap and STD screening within the past year. We’ll assist you in completing this if you have not.
An expense account will be setup by the intended parent(s) to cover varies cost for you including travel which is within 50 miles of you cycling clinic or monitoring center, and any travel expenses if you’re considered a traveling donor.
The probability is yes! Becoming an egg donor is a big commitment for a short amount of time. Depending on the location of your cycling clinic you might miss a half day for your new patent appointment which is your medical screening to get approved to move forward. You’ll meet your nursing team, meet the doctor, complete different labs including urine drug toxicology, infectious disease screening, and genetic screening. Once we have a cycle plan in place and you’re ready to being the egg donation process is where the big commitment comes. Having a little flexibility in your schedule is important. The actual egg donation process is time sensitive.
From the start of the injections to the actual egg retrieval is about a 14 day commitment. You’ll have four to eight early morning appointments to monitor egg follicle growth and hormone labs leading up to the egg retrieval. These appointments are early morning so you can get to school and work. Some appointments can land on the weekend. Plan to miss a day or two of school and/or work for the egg retrieval. 98% of egg donor go back to school and/or work the next day.
You decide if you want your donation to be anonymous or open. If you do decided to remain anonymous Creative Love cannot promise that the intendent parent(s) or donor conceived child could not find you though DNA testing. With modern technology it is easier for someone to discover you
The donor sibling registry is a 3rd party website which allows the recipient(s) and if ever the donor conceived children a way to communicate with the donor using a username and not the donors full name. As a donor you do have full control of your personal identity. You decide for yourself how you will or will not handle future contact. The registry gives the donor a way to share any changes in her medical history, and have contact in the future if everyone is in agreement. As a donor you’re not obligated to register.
An egg donation cycle is not about quantality of eggs. It’s about the quality. An average egg donor cycle results in an egg retrieval of 10-21 eggs. Some egg donor respond exceptional well to the medications and can produce up to 30 eggs.
