What is the Egg Donation procedure?
STEP 1: The Application Process
After successfully completing The Center for Egg Options online screening form you will be asked to download the full application from our website or if needed, we will mail you one. Completing the application carefully and comprehensively will greatly enable our team to review it thoroughly. We will contact you to discuss our program and to verify your application information if you qualify for our egg donor program. You will need to provide us with 10+ pictures of yourself including a few of you as a child, and a few of any children you have had. The pictures you include with your application are very important to our intended parents and will help them in their decision process. Pictures should show you at your best.
STEP 2: Psychological Testing
First, you will meet with a PHD Psychologist or licensed Clinical Social Worker to discuss the emotional impact of egg donation. Then you will take an MMPI-2 Personality Inventory which will give us a more thorough psychological evaluation. Upon completing the personality questionnaire, you will begin the medical testing.
STEP 3: Getting Matched
Your application, pictures and personality information will be provided to prospective intended parents clean of any and all identifying information. Prospective parents will be given the applications free of charge until they are ready to choose a donor. When they choose a donor, you will receive a phone call that a match has been made and the legal documentation of that arrangement will begin.
STEP 4: Legal Documentation
You will meet with an attorney who specializes in Assisted Reproductive Technology to review the egg donor agreement. Then you will need to sign some legal documents that outline all payments and conditions of the program and your treatment. You will relinquish all legal parental rights to any embryos that are created or children who are born as a result of your egg donation.
STEP 5: Medical Testing/Physican Consult
The medical testing is done with the recipients’ Doctor and will include a general consult with a full blood workup and pelvic ultrasound. If all the results are within normal limits, then you will continue on as a donor.
STEP 6: Ovulation Suppression
You will be placed on birth control pills or a Nuvaring ® to prevent you from ovulating.
STEP 7: Medical Procedures/Retrieval
Medications are required to first synchronize your cycle with your recipient. This medication is self-administered daily for approximately 3.5 weeks. The nurse in the IVF Center will teach you how to give yourself these injections. They are given with ¼” needles (the smallest available). While you are on the first medication, you will begin the “stimulation” medication. This is to ensure you will have between 10-20 mature follicles (fluid filled cysts in ovary with an egg in it) to retrieve. While you are on "stimulation" injections, there will be several appointments to go to. These last few days of the cycle are critical for your health and the pregnancy outcome so you must NOT miss ANY of these appointments. You will have blood drawn and pelvic ultrasounds and when your follicles are mature, the IVF Center will schedule your retrieval. You will take your last injection and arrive at the surgi-center about 36 hours later for the procedure. You will be sedated with IV medication that is very short acting. The retrieval is completed using a vaginal ultrasound guided needle that probes internally to the ovaries (one at a time). All large follicles are emptied, taking about 10 minutes for the procedure to be completed on both ovaries. You will rest in a recovery area for about an hour and go home to take it easy for another few hours.
