What is Egg Donation?

Each woman has her own path to motherhood. For someone, it is simple and easy, but sometimes, it requires overcoming many obstacles. Fortunately, modern medicine can make dreams of having children a reality. Nowadays, every woman can feel the joy of motherhood, even if nature deprived her of this opportunity. Egg donation is a unique chance for a woman who has serious gynecological problems preventing her from becoming a mother.

What is Egg Donation and When Is It Necessary?

In the body of a healthy woman, there are dozens of eggs ready for fertilization. Still, in some cases, illnesses, congenital anomalies, injuries and some other causes disrupt their functionality. As a result, the woman becomes completely sterile. Also, there can be serious genetic hereditary diseases that a woman does not want to transfer to her kids, and therefore consciously refuses the possibility of having biological children. In such cases, oocyte donation is the best solution. The use of a donor egg for IVF gives an opportunity to become pregnant and give birth to a healthy baby. If because of her health state, a woman cannot carry a baby, then a surrogate mother will do this for her.

Choice of a Clinic and Donor

Choosing an egg donor is an important moment because the health and look of the unborn child depend on this. A lot of IVF clinics have a huge donor base that helps future parents to make a choice. In the vast majority of cases, couples choose a donor who looks like at least one of them for the baby to seem like their own. They can request a height, hair and eye color, nose shape, foot size, etc. All donors undergo detailed examinations prior to eggs collection to make sure they do not have hereditary chronic diseases and lead a healthy lifestyle. A prerequisite for donation is an age from 18 to 35 years and an already born child. Due to this, future parents are confident that their infant has every chance to be strong and healthy. They have the right to carefully examine the medical card of the donor. The woman-donor, in turn, signs a document that she will not try to find out who got her egg.

Sometimes, a relative or friend can act as an egg donor. In this case, the couple can save some money.

As for the clinic, it is better to give preference to trusted ones with good reviews and legal support.

About the Procedure

First, future parents go to a clinic and choose a donor. Then, the doctors achieve synchronization of the menstrual cycles in both women with the help of hormonal drugs. In one of the cycles, the donor is stimulated for the onset of multiple ovulation. After that, there is an oocyte collection with subsequent fertilization for an IVF procedure. All live unused embryos are frozen for cases when there is no impregnation from the first try. There is also a second option - the collection of eggs happens at any time, after which they are frozen and then defrozen just before IVF.

The use of donor eggs, especially in the combination with the services of a surrogate mother, is quite expensive. But when family happiness is at stake, is it worth any money.