How Old Do You Have to Be to Donate Eggs

April 2, 2021
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One of the top questions asked is “How old do you have to be to donate eggs?” All egg donor programs have age restrictions, but most don’t explain the reasoning behind this requirement. This leads many to ask us – how old do you have to be to donate eggs or what’s the oldest you can be to safely donate eggs?

We seek healthy young women between the ages of 19 and 30 to donate eggs to hopeful families.

This age range (give or take a year or two) is common to donor egg banks as well as egg donor agencies around the world.  It’s not for superficial reasons and it’s not age discrimination! Egg donor age restrictions are important to the success of donor egg recipients — and the well-being of our egg donors.

The Responsibility of Donating Eggs

Donating your eggs is a big commitment that takes a lot of time and responsibility. First, the testing and screening process takes effort. You must submit an egg donor application that asks for an extremely detailed medical history, not only for yourself but your whole family including your grandparents. You also have to go through a complete medical exam, blood tests, and genetic screening.

Fairfax EggBank screens for emotional and psychological readiness to become an egg donor and donate eggs. We make sure you understand what’s involved and what egg donation means for you. We also want to make sure you are prepared to work with the doctors and staff during the egg donation process, which can take six to eight weeks. It’s also important to determine if you can fit egg donation in around work, school, and family responsibilities. If you can give yourself medications and go to daily appointments. Once the process starts, we need to know if you can see it through to completion. We need to be sure that you can not only handle all of this physically but emotionally as well. We support our egg donors through every step of the process but donating eggs is a very personal experience.

The end goal is a selection of healthy eggs that will help dreams come true for those coping with the inability to have a family of their own. We also want to make sure that our egg donors can take charge of their health. All of this takes a certain level of maturity and responsibility. In our experience, 19 is the minimum age that can consistently take on the challenges and commitments of being an egg donor.

Age Matters with Women’s Eggs

At the other end of the spectrum, you might think that 30 is a bit young for the maximum age for new donors accepted to the Fairfax EggBank donor program. After all, don’t women over that age have children every day?

That’s true, they do. Every woman is different, of course!

The number and quality of a woman’s eggs begin to go decline in her mid to late 30s. Many women who pursue IVF with donor eggs are doing so because they suffer from infertility due to age-related issues. For that reason, our age requirement for applicants also considers donors who may cycle more than once.

A woman is born with her set amount of eggs; about 1 to 2 million at birth. By the time she reaches menopause, that number naturally declines to several hundred. It is important to understand women do not produce “new” eggs. They just release a set number of eggs per menstrual cycle. These are either fertilized or discarded by the body with the monthly period.

IVF with donor eggs is an expensive treatment. It often comes after an emotionally draining journey through years of other fertility treatments. To have better odds of IVF success, a couple may need to fertilize and implant many eggs. As an egg bank, our job is to make sure that those who receive our donor eggs are getting the best eggs possible. We also must make sure that they receive a certain number (or a cohort) of healthy eggs from the same donor. So medically speaking, age does matter when it comes to a woman’s eggs. Our goal is to provide our patients with the high quality and quantity of eggs, to ensure their success with IVF, so we take all these factors into account.

Interested In Being An Egg Donor? Contact Fairfax EggBank to Learn More

Our age requirements serve two goals: to make sure our egg donors are ready for this important responsibility, and to make sure those seeking donor eggs have the best chance for successful conception and pregnancy. We rely on our egg donors to help make family dreams come true. Still curious about what is involved or want to learn more about the egg donation process? Check out our FAQs for egg donors or contact us.

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