Everything You Need to Know About Egg Donation

Infertility can be maddening, frustrating, and disheartening. But even if assisted fertility treatments such as in-vitro fertilization have failed for your family goals, egg donation may offer a solution.

Egg donation involves using an egg from a healthy woman of childbearing age to create an embryo that’s then placed into your uterus. This allows you to carry a child and give birth.

At California Center for Reproductive Health, Dr. Eliran Mor and Dr. Irene Woo provide this advanced fertility treatment to women living in Encino, Santa Monica, Valencia, and West Hollywood, California. Learn more about how this treatment may be an option for you. 

If you’re a healthy young woman looking to help other families, find out more about how you can donate your eggs.

What happens during egg donation?

During egg donation, the donor egg is obtained from a young, healthy woman, and then is fertilized in a laboratory with your partner’s sperm or donor sperm. Prior to egg harvesting, your egg donor undergoes injections of hormones to help recruit multiple eggs. Meanwhile, you undergo hormone treatments to prepare your uterus for implantation.

Once the embryo (or embryos) are ready and deemed healthy, they’re transferred into your uterus to attach and develop into a baby.

Who is a candidate for egg donation?

If you’re suffering infertility due to issues with your eggs, then egg donation may be the solution. You may have premature ovarian failure, or premature menopause, or diminished ovarian reserve caused by age. A woman’s fertility usually diminishes greatly after age 40.

Women who’ve undergone genetic screening and have a genetic disease that could possibly be passed on to a child may choose egg donation. Dr. Mor may also recommend egg donation to those who’ve had a prior failure with in vitro fertilization that was likely due to egg quality. Same-sex male couples may also choose egg donation and gestational surrogacy.

Where do donor eggs come from?

We have an in-house donor egg bank. We obtain the eggs from donors that are carefully screened, stimulated with hormones to produce eggs, and undergo safe egg retrieval. These eggs may be used immediately (you and your donor undergo fertility stimulation at the same time) or come from a frozen reserve.

Frozen eggs offer numerous advantages, as they’re ready when you are, and you don’t have to face the risk that a donor is not available when you’re ready. Our frozen eggs are of the highest quality, and we manage all of our own screening, stimulation, and egg retrievals.

At California Center for Reproductive Health, we obtain egg donations from carefully screened donors who are compensated well for their generosity in helping couples make their dreams come true. If you’re interested in helping a family achieve pregnancy, contact our office today. 

How successful is egg donation?

When an egg issue stands in the way of your fertility, egg donation provides a much greater chance of successful pregnancy as compared to using your own eggs. You and your donor undergo intensive screening, including medical evaluations, genetic tests, psychological screenings, and a mandatory infectious disease screening. Once medically cleared, you and the donor sign a binding legal contract.

The fetus implanted into your uterus may not carry your genetic material, but by carrying the child, you play an enormous role in how the baby’s genes express.

Egg donation is a highly successful option for couples struggling with infertility. Of course, the decision to pursue this – or any – fertility treatment is a difficult one. At California Center for Reproductive Health, we’re ready to assist you by providing education, compassion, and medical support when it comes to pregnancy and infertility.

If you’re ready to learn more about how our egg donation program can help you achieve a healthy pregnancy, call one of our offices or book your consultation online.