A Look at the Egg Donation Process
There are many couples who find themselves going through the egg donation process in order to become pregnant. Here is your ultimate guide to everything you need to know about egg donation.
What is Egg Donation?
Egg donation is when a young woman, either anonymous or known to the couple, goes through the in vitro fertilization process, has her eggs retrieved and donates them to the recipients. The eggs are then fertilized in the lab with the recipient’s husband’s sperm and the resulting embryos are are transferred into the recipient’s uterus on either the third or fifth day after the eggs are retrieved from the donor. Both the recipient and donor will take hormones to sync up their menstrual cycles and prepare their bodies for their role in the cycle.
Types
Most clinics offer two different types of cycles; an exclusive cycle where all of the eggs retrieved from the donor go to you, and a shared cycle where you are matched with both a donor and another recipient. All of the eggs retrieved during a shared cycle are split between the two (and sometimes three) recipients. The purpose of splitting a donor is to also split some of the costs related to the donor, making the cycle less expensive. You should speak with the egg donor coordinator at your fertility clinic for more details about the specifics of the types of cycles they offer.
Cost
Egg donation can be expensive and is almost never covered by insurance. Some policies may cover some of the costs for the recipient (medication, embryo culture, embryo transfer), but the expenses for the donor will not be. Cycle costs vary from center to center, but exclusive cycles are around $30,000 and shared cycles cost approximately $16,000. This may or may not include the costs related to freezing excess embryos; again depending on your facility.