Egg donation

What is egg donation?

Egg donation involves going through some of the same steps as IVF, so that some of your eggs can be collected and given to help someone else start or grow a family, used for research, or used to train fertility professionals. In the UK, the whole process is regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

What conditions can egg donation help with?

Donated eggs can help people who are unable to use their own eggs, for reasons that include:

• Ovaries that never developed properly, such as in Turner syndrome
• Premature ovarian failure or the menopause, where the ovaries have stopped producing eggs
• Ovaries removed because of a tumour, cyst or endometriosis
• Reduced egg quality or quantity after chemotherapy or radiotherapy for another condition, such as cancer
• A risk of passing on a serious genetic condition to a child
• Eggs that don't fertilise or develop into a healthy embryo, even with fertility treatment
• No egg provider within the relationship, such as a same-sex male couple, a single man, or a transgender person.

What are the benefits of egg donation?

Donating your eggs is a selfless choice that can give someone a much-wanted baby they wouldn't otherwise be able to have.

UK law doesn't allow eggs to be bought or sold, so instead you can claim compensation, set at £985 for a completed cycle, to help with your time and reasonable costs like travel.

As part of the screening process, you'll also go through a full set of fertility health checks, which can give you useful information about your own reproductive health.

Are there different types of egg donation?

There are a few ways to donate your eggs:

• Donating to someone's treatment: Whether that's a stranger matched through a clinic or somebody you already know, for instance a relative
• Egg sharing: Where you donate some of your eggs while having IVF or egg-freezing treatment yourself, which usually means your own treatment costs less or is free
• Donating: Either to research or to help train fertility professionals in the techniques used in treatment.

It isn't possible to donate anonymously in the UK.

What happens before you donate your eggs?

Before donating, you'll need health and genetic screening tests to check you won't pass on a serious disease or condition, and you must tell your clinic about anything relevant in your family's medical history. Most UK clinics look for donors aged 18 to 35, though some set their own tighter age or BMI limits.

Your clinic is legally required to offer counselling so you can talk through what's involved.

You'll then give written consent to the donation and to how your eggs, or any resulting embryos, may be stored or used.

Altogether, this stage and the treatment cycle add up to roughly 2 to 3 months, counting from when you first get in touch with a clinic through to your eggs actually being collected.

What happens during egg donation?

1. Around day 2 of your monthly cycle, you begin daily hormone injections (follicle stimulating hormone, or FSH) that encourage more of your follicles than usual to develop, each potentially holding an egg
2. A few days into treatment, a second daily injection is added to hold back your body's natural trigger for ovulation, so the eggs aren't released too soon
3. Your response gets checked through scans and blood tests, sometimes over more than one clinic visit, to see how the follicles are coming along
4. Once the follicles have grown enough, one more injection is given to bring the eggs to full maturity, ready for collection
5. Collection is carried out with pain relief on board – some donors also have sedation or a general anaesthetic, and the whole thing is done inside about 30 minutes
6. Your eggs are then either mixed with sperm that same day, or frozen to use at a later date, depending on the arrangement in place.

What does recovery look like?

It's common to notice some tenderness or a bruise where the needle went in after your eggs are collected, and the clinic team will talk you through what you can take to stay comfortable before you head home.

Most donors get through the stimulation and collection with nothing worse than mild discomfort. Still, tell your clinic straight away if you notice things like headaches, sickness or a swollen abdomen, especially in the week or so afterwards, since that's the typical window for ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) to develop – covered under risks below.

What are the risks and complications?

Reactions to the fertility drugs are usually mild, and can include headaches, feeling sick or a bloated stomach. Let your clinic know straight away if you notice any of these.

A number of donors develop ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), a reaction to the drugs that usually appears in the week after egg collection.

• Mild OHSS: A swollen or uncomfortable stomach, feeling sick, and stomach pain – this accounts for the majority of cases
• More severe OHSS: Vomiting, dehydration, breathlessness and passing less urine than usual
• Clotting in a vein (thrombosis): Affecting the leg or lungs, which can cause a swollen or painful leg, chest pain or breathlessness.

OHSS usually settles by itself within 1 to 2 weeks, and very rarely becomes life-threatening. Other uncommon risks include pelvic infection (around 0.3% to 1% of cycles) and bleeding (around 0.3%).