How Does Egg Donation Work? And Your Other FAQs Answered

I’d like to use fresh donor eggs in my fertility treatment.  How does fresh egg donation work?

Firstly, who can use donor eggs?

To receive donor eggs with Altrui & Apricity, you must fit the following criteria:

• be aged 50 or under
• have a free consultation call (around 30 minutes)
• have a satisfactory medical review by Altrui & Apricity fertility specialists to check your fertility history

The process of receiving donor eggs

There are 5 steps to using donor eggs in fertility treatment:

1. Pay the registration fee and have a phone call with an Altrui & Apricity fertility coordinator.  In this call you’ll discuss what kind of donor you’re seeking; their physical characteristics, personality, education, hobbies etc.
2. Once Altrui & Apricity find an egg donor that matches your criteria, they share as much information with you about the suggested donor as you’d like.  Some donor egg recipients choose to receive as much information about their donor as possible in one go, others wish to receive information bit by bit.
3. You can accept or decline your offered egg donor – most Altrui & Apricity egg donation recipients are very happy with the matched egg donor.  If you decide to not go with the suggested donor, Altrui & Apricity will continue finding you an egg donor.
4. When you accept an egg donor for fertility treatment your egg donor will undergo ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval.  Altrui & Apricity try to sync both donor and the recipient but usually, it’s very difficult to do, so your donor’s eggs are likely frozen after egg retrieval.
5. IVF is done as soon as possible, depending on your cycle.

How long does take to get matched with an egg donor for fertility treatment?

Currently, it takes around four weeks to be matched with an Altrui & Apricity egg donor for fresh donation fertility treatment – but this depends on how specific your donor requirements are and whether a donor comes forward who matches your criteria.  If you sign up to be an egg recipient with Altrui & Apricity and are not offered an egg donor within three months, you’ll receive a full refund.

At the beginning of the egg donation process, you’ll speak with a fertility specialist about all the important considerations you’re seeking from an egg donor.  This way, Altrui & Apricity can match you with a donor who’ll conceive a child who’ll fit into your family.  Altrui & Apricity also go a step further and try to find a donor they think you’ll like and who’d like to give her eggs to you if she knew you.

What information will I receive about my egg donor?

When you are offered a match for your egg donor, you will receive her physical characteristics, information about her background, and if she has children.  If Altrui & Apricity have been provided with it, you’ll also receive a photograph of the donor as a baby or a child up to the age of six.  The donor will have also written a personal profile which will be shared with you – this can give an insight into her character and why she decided to donate eggs.

How much does it cost to use an egg donor for fertility treatment?

To use an Altrui & Apricity fresh egg donor, the cost is around £3,000 which is more cost-effective than using an egg bank.  This is because you receive all eggs from the donor (which is the difference between egg banks that already have the eggs retrieved and stored for purchase).  When the Altrui & Apricity egg donors undergo egg collection, fertility specialists typically collect around 15 eggs – all for the egg recipient to use.  Averaging 15 donor eggs from a fresh egg collection increases the overall chances of pregnancy as well as genetically-related siblings.

What are the benefits of using an egg donation agency, like Altrui & Apricity vs an egg bank?

Think of an egg bank like a supermarket for eggs.  You can choose eggs based on desired qualities of your donor and with an egg bank, you specifically buy six or nine – or whatever specific number you wish to purchase.

With an egg agency like Altrui & Apricity, the best efforts are made to match you with your perfect donor.  As a result, you get all your donor’s eggs (averaging at 15 eggs).

Buying six eggs (for example) might be cheaper in the short term, but usually, some eggs don’t fertilise, some embryos don’t survive for implantation and out of those six eggs you might only end up with one viable embryo.

Therefore, with an egg donation agency like Altrui & Apricity, you get as many eggs collected from your egg donor which you can use in future IVF cycles for genetically-related children.  Ultimately, this is more cost-effective.

Moreover, traditional egg banks have relatively long waiting times.  Altrui & Apricity has lots of egg donors and an average waiting time of four weeks from registration.

I’m thinking of becoming a donor, how do fertility clinics take eggs for donation?

The decision to become an egg donor is a big step and the kindness and generosity of egg donors shouldn’t be forgotten.  But when it comes to egg donation how do you donate eggs?