Our Readiness Assessment for Becoming an Egg Donor

Many applicants apply with confidence that they are emotionally ready to become an egg donor. Yet, once they complete our application, they realize certain physical limitations and information needs prevent them from moving forward in the process. Before diving into the application, take this quick assessment of the most common barriers to see if you’re ready to move on.

Do you feel informed and emotionally ready?

You may feel like you don’t have enough information about egg donation. Or, you may think there’s too much, making it hard to distinguish fact from fiction. As a first step, look through our blogs and FAQ section, rich and reliable sources of information. Also, get viewpoints from egg donors who have gone through the process. Rest assured, if you move forward in our program, we’ll sit down with you to carefully review each step of the process and provide objective information on benefits and risks.

You’re making a huge commitment and we don’t take that lightly — we’ll only move you forward when you’re ready to.

Can you make the time commitment?

On average, the time from when an egg donor starts the process to when she completes an egg donation cycle is 4 months. If you pass the online application, you’ll undergo initial screening, consisting of 1-4 office visits over a 2 month period. If approved, you’ll be accepted into our egg donation program. From there, you’ll start cycling, which will consist of 4-7 quick office visits within a 2 week period. Office visits are scheduled in the morning.

The only time you’ll need to take a full day off is for your egg retrieval; though the procedure itself only takes about 20 minutes, you’ll need to rest for the remainder of the day. Most egg donors resume normal activity the next day. You can learn more about balancing egg donation in your life here.

Will you live within 2 hours of one of our facilities over the next several months?

During the screening and donation process, you’ll be required to make approximately 7-12 trips to the facility. The back-and-forth commute can be very demanding on the egg donor. Egg donors who move outside the 2-hour radius within the time period also run the risk of delaying or canceling the process if they don’t return within a reasonable amount of time to complete it. If you answered “no” to this question, you will not be a good candidate for egg donation.

Are you able to provide an accurate and up-to-date medical history across three family generations? This includes all of your biological siblings, parents, aunts/uncles, and grandparents.

You will need to be able to list any deaths, medical and/or genetic conditions, and psychological conditions, along with the age of onset across the three generations. Our clinical geneticist needs this information to determine your eligibility for the program – we want to make sure we are providing egg donor recipients with the best chance possible of conceiving a healthy child, and equally as important we want to make sure you are healthy and that we don’t put your health at risk by having you undergo an egg donation cycle. If you don’t have confidence that you can gather and list these details, then we will not be able to accept you into our program.

If you’re currently using Depo Provera, an implant (e.g., Nexplanon or Implanon), or a hormonal IUD (e.g., Mirena or Skyla), will you be willing to stop or remove the form of contraception if you’re invited to start the screening process?

These forms of birth control release hormones that interfere with testing results in addition to the medications needed for the donation cycle. Therefore, if we accept your medical application and interview you, you must switch or remove the form of contraception PRIOR to being accepted into the egg donation program.  Accepted forms of birth control throughout the egg donation process are oral birth control pills, the patch, Nuvaring, or a non-hormonal copper IUD (e.g., Paragard).

Just to give you a ballpark timeline, this means that you may need to switch or remove the form of contraception in as soon as you are approved to begin the screening process. If you have doubts about switching or stopping, then you may not be a good candidate for egg donation.

Note to emphasize: Please do NOT switch or stop until after we have accepted your initial and medical application and have interviewed you.

Do you get your period every 21-35 days when you are NOT using any form of hormonal contraception?

You are required to have normal, regular periods for participation because irregular cycle ranges can be indicative of ovulatory dysfunction. We run comprehensive testing to evaluate ovulatory function and disqualify applicants who exhibit abnormalities. If you know or suspect you have irregular periods, you may not be a good candidate for egg donation.

If you have Native American roots, are they less than 25% of your ethnic background?

It may sound like a unique question, but we ask it for good reason. Tribes can claim ownership of any child who is at least 25% Native American by exercising the Indian Child Welfare Act. There have been cases pursued before in the egg donor world, so for preventative measures of protecting our recipients, we do not allow donors who are at least 25% Native American to be enrolled in our egg donation program

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Based on the questions above, are you ready to move forward? If so, click here to get started.