Become an Egg Donor

Basic qualifications to be an egg donor 

a. Age 20-31 

b. Good general health 

c. BMI

d. No sexually transmitted diseases within the last 12 months 

e. Non-smoker 

f. Family history without significant health or hereditary issues 

g. Not contractually obligated to donate to another agency 

1. Egg donation process 

a. Ovarian suppression visit: On the 2nd or 3rd day of your period, you will have a clinic appointment for an ultrasound and blood test. If everything looks good you will start birth control pills to help schedule your egg donation cycle. Birth control pills are typically prescribed for 2-3 weeks. 

b. Stimulation start: Approximately 4 days after your last birth control pill, you will come back to the clinic to have another ultrasound and blood tests. If everything looks good, you will start taking daily injections of fertility hormones. The purpose of the hormones is to recruit multiple egg follicles to grow. You will need to come to the clinic 4-5 times over a 10-12-day period while you are taking the hormone injections for ultrasound and blood tests. 

c. Egg Retrieval: The final step is the egg retrieval surgery. You will receive medicine through the IV for sedation, you will not feel any pain or remember the procedure. A needle will be passed through the vagina into the ovaries and each follicle will be aspirated. The whole procedure takes approximately 30 minutes. After a 1 hour rest in the recovery room you will be discharged home. 10-14 days later you will have a period. 

2. Risks to egg donation 

The overall risk of egg donation is low. The hormone injections used for stimulation can have a wide range of side effects including: bloating, mood swings, headaches, ovarian cysts formation, and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). OHSS causes swelling as fluid collects in the abdomen leading to abdominal bloating, feeling of fullness, nausea, diarrhea, and shortness of breath. Most of the cases are mild to moderate, but severe cases may need to be hospitalized for treatment. 

Egg donation does not reduce the number of eggs available for future cycles. In a typical ovulation cycle, a group of eggs become available to grow that month, however only enough hormone is produced by your brain to mature one egg so that it may ovulate and fertilize. The remainder of the eggs will die. The hormone injections function to support the eggs that would otherwise die, to grow and mature. Therefore, donors do not lose additional eggs through the process of egg donation. 

3. Donor compensation 

We believe that there is no price-tag for the priceless gift you are giving. Financial compensation is to respect your dedication, effort, time and any possible discomfort associated with the egg donation process. CCRH offers one of the highest compensation for egg donation in the greater Los Angeles region. Donors may receive from $5000-10,000 a cycle depending on their qualifications and previous donation experience.

4. Refer-A-Friend

Help raise awareness for infertility and be rewarded! Discover our referral program. Earn a $50 prepaid Visa/MasterCard card for every friend you refer that qualifies and enrolls in our Egg Donation Program. 

Please contact us at nursing@center4reproduction or call us at 818-907-1571 for more information to become an egg donor.

1. Please complete the below application. Once you have completed your application, we will review it to see if you meet our eligibility requirements. If so, we will contact you as soon as possible to arrange an in-person interview.

2. In person interview – We will briefly review your medical history and physical exam. A pelvic ultrasound to check the health of your ovaries will also be performed. After this interview, if you are accepted into our Egg Donor Program, your profile will be uploaded to our password protected website. Egg donation is mostly done anonymously, meaning that the donor and the intended parents do not know the identity of each other. To help you be chosen and matched, we do create an electronic profile which is posted on our password protected website. The profile includes pictures and information about your health and family history. Your name will never be used. 

3. Being Selected – It’s an amazing feeling to know you could provide a life changing gift to a couple! 

4. Medical Screening and Genetic Report – Once you are selected, you will be invited to return to our clinic for a full medical history, physical exam, and STD panel. Our donors will also undergo a genetic carrier screening test. Typically, carriers are healthy individuals; but when two parents are carriers of the same genetic mutation they can have a child affected with the actual disease. This is a wonderful opportunity to receive important health history for yourself. 

5. Psychological Screening – If your medical screening tests return normal, you will have an interview with a psychologist and take a brief standardized psychological test which consists of various true or false questions. 

6. Legal contract – All egg donations require a legal contract between a donor and recipient and/or between the donor and CCRH. This agreement is meant to protect the privacy of all parties, define parental rights, and further outlines your compensation, duties, and rights as an egg donor. Our clinic will refer you to an attorney who will represent you in the creation of this legal agreement and to help you understand the document before you sign. 

7. Coordination of the IVF cycle -If the intended parents choose a fresh embryo transfer, we may need to synchronize your cycle with the recipient using birth control pills.