Being an Egg Donor: What to Expect
For many young women, being an egg donor is an exciting and fulfilling experience that allows them to help someone create a family and be compensated for their time and effort. However, if you’ve only recently begun considering becoming an egg donor, you probably have a lot of questions and aren’t sure what to expect in terms of the process itself.
The Pre-Donation Phase
Once you have been accepted as an egg donor, a profile is created for you in an egg donor database. This database is password protected and can be viewed only by intended parents, who use the database to search for an egg donor based on their particular wants and needs.
Once you have been selected as an egg donor, you will go through a psychological evaluation to determine whether you’re emotionally prepared to be an egg donor, meet with a lawyer to review and sign a donor contract, and undergo a series of medical evaluations. These include blood work and a vaginal ultrasound. You also will go through training to learn how to inject yourself with medication.
The Egg Donation Process
You will then start the medication process, which begins with Lupron. This medication helps suppress the pituitary system, which is responsible for controlling hormones. Using Lupron allows your doctor to override the system and plan the best approach to a successful egg retrieval. To get ready for the second phase, you will visit the fertility center for a blood test and an ultrasound.
During the second phase, you will take follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) medication via self-injection to stimulate your ovaries into producing and maturing more follicles than you normally would. These medications will be administered for about 10 days. During this time, you will visit the fertility center every other day for blood tests and ultrasounds that will keep track of your hormone levels.
Once you’ve reached the appropriate level, your doctor will give you the go-ahead to take your final injection – a shot of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which will prepare your ovaries for egg retrieval. About 34 hours after the hCG injection, you will be given a sedative and the egg retrieval procedure will be performed using ultrasound and a fine, hollow needle. The needle aspirates the eggs from the follicles. Most egg donors report feeling very little discomfort during the procedure.
After Egg Retrieval Is Complete
About 30 minutes after the procedure is complete, you will be awake. You’ll still be groggy, so you’ll need to have someone with you to take you home. Many donors return to school or work the following day. Compensation is mailed to you after the egg retrieval and is not impacted by the number of eggs retrieved or the outcome of the pregnancy.
If you’re interested in becoming an egg donor and would like to learn more, contact Fertility Source Companies today to see what it’s really like to be an egg donor.
