Egg Donation Program

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Become an Egg Donor

Visit our egg donor agency, PureOvum. Click here to start the initial application.

Already started an application with PureOvum? Click here to log back in to complete and submit your application.

Introduction to Egg Donation

Egg donation was started in 1984 as an alternative to using a woman’s own eggs. Over the last 15 years, FSMG and our egg donors have helped hundreds of couples achieve their dreams.

Patients who build their family through egg donation are no longer able to use their own eggs due to:

  • Age
  • Cancer
  • Loss of ovaries or ovarian function due to illness or injury
  • Carriers of a genetic abnormality

In the egg donation process, eggs are retrieved from a donor’s ovaries, fertilized in the laboratory during in vitro fertilization (IVF) with the sperm of the recipient’s partner or donor sperm, and then the resulting embryo(s) are transferred into the recipient’s prepared uterus. These embryos may also be frozen for future family building.

Let’s start out with just getting to know each other a little better and see if you can qualify as an egg donor.

The Egg Donation Process

The Following is a Brief Outline of the Donor Egg Process:

  1. Hormones are administered to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple follicles (fluid-filled sacs that contain the eggs).
  2. You will have multiple ultrasounds and estrogen levels tested to monitor the growth of the follicles. Monitoring aids in adjusting medication doses and determining the timing of the egg retrieval.
  3. Egg(s) are obtained from the ovary just prior to the expected time of ovulation. A small needle is passed through the vagina into the ovary under ultrasound guidance. This technique is performed on an outpatient basis while the donor is under intravenous sedation and analgesia. The eggs are aspirated from the ovaries and passed off the embryology team.
  4. The recipient will provide a sperm source to fertilize these retrieved eggs (this could be the partner, anonymous donor sperm or known donor sperm.)
  5. Fertilization of the egg by the sperm through intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg for fertilization.
  6. Embryos are typically cultured in the lab until the 5th, 6th or 7th day of development. These embryos can be transferred into the recipient’s (or gestational carrier’s) uterus with a fresh embryo transfer, or frozen for chromosomal testing and/or future use.

Interested in learning more about becoming an egg donor or the egg donor process? Please visit PureOvum’s egg collective.

 

Egg donors are capable of flipping the script for those who thought their story had ended…

For Intended Parents

Infertility can be heart-wrenching for the individuals and couples facing it. Our egg donation program is a life-changing gift that can flip the script and make the dream of becoming a parent a reality.

Selecting and Completing Your Egg Donor’s Cycle

While the process may seem overwhelming, the Third Party team at FSMG will walk you through each step. We start by performing a complete review of your medical records and a careful assessment to individualize your treatment. While all tests performed are thorough and efficient, we also make sure not to repeat any tests previously done by other physicians, as long as they have been done appropriately and within a certain time frame.

The other components include:

  • Identifying a donor candidate for a fresh donor cycle or frozen donor cohort (2 to 12 weeks).
  • Additional donor testing (1-4 weeks), if indicated
  • Donor stimulation cycle (2 weeks)

Types of Donor Cycles

We offer both Currently Non-Identified Egg Donation (NIED) and Identified Egg Donation (IED) for both fresh donor cycles and frozen donor egg cohorts.

Identified Egg Donor: An identified egg donor is usually a close friend or family member who is willing to donate their eggs. If you elect to use an identified donor, our physicians will screen your donor to ensure that they are a good candidate for egg donation.

Currently Non-Identified Egg Donor: If you choose to use a Currently Non-Identified Donor, you will select a donor through our agency, PureOvum egg donor collective.

Donor candidates are typically between 19 and 28 years old. Once selected, donors undergo extensive physical, genetic, and psychological screening before they are accepted into the program. The screening process carefully follows guidelines that have been set by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

If you choose a Currently Non-Identified Donor, you will be provided with a detailed medical history of both the donor and her family, along with a thorough description of her physical characteristics. You will also have access to her genetic counseling information.

Fresh Donor Cycles: In a fresh donor cycle, your donor will be screened and complete her cycle after you select her for your cycle. The eggs will be fertilized with your sperm source on the day of the egg retrieval, and although the embryos may be frozen for future use, the eggs will not be frozen.

Please visit PureOvum Egg Donor Collective’s website to view their database of available donors for fresh donor cycles.

Frozen Donor Egg Cohorts: In a frozen donor cohort cycle, the donor will have already completed her cycle in the previous months (or years) and the eggs will be frozen in groups, or cohorts, of 6-8 eggs. These cohorts of eggs may be purchased directly from egg banks and shipped to our clinic for egg thaw and fertilization.

FSMG currently works with three frozen egg banks that patients may select to purchase egg cohorts from:

The Following is a Brief Outline of the Donor Egg Process:

  1. Hormones are administered to the donor to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple follicles (fluid-filled sacs that contain the eggs).
  2. Your donor will have multiple ultrasounds and estrogen levels tested to monitor the growth of the follicles. Monitoring aids in adjusting medication doses and determining the timing of the egg retrieval.
  3. Egg(s) are obtained from the ovary just prior to the expected time of ovulation. A small needle is passed through the vagina into the ovary under ultrasound guidance. This technique is performed on an outpatient basis while the donor is under intravenous sedation and analgesia. The eggs are aspirated from the ovaries and passed off the embryology team.
  4. We will use your sperm source to fertilize these retrieved eggs (this could be the partner, anonymous donor sperm, or known donor sperm.)
  5. Fertilization of the egg by the sperm through intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg for fertilization.
  6. Embryos are typically cultured in the lab until the 5th, 6th, or 7th day of development. These embryos can be transferred into the recipient’s (or gestational carrier’s) uterus with a fresh embryo transfer, or frozen for chromosomal testing and/or future use.

If an immediate transfer is planned, while the donor is completing her stimulation cycle, you or your gestational carrier will begin the process of preparing the uterus for the embryo transfer. If the embryos are to be biopsied and genetically tested, the transfer will be delayed by a few weeks.

A combination of estrogen and progesterone will be prescribed to ensure that the uterus is ready for implantation of the embryo. Estrogen is administered by mouth or by injection. At the time your egg donor is to undergo egg retrieval, you will start a treatment of progesterone to begin preparing the lining of your uterus for implantation of the embryo.

This is usually given as a combination of intramuscular injection and a vaginal suppository/gel. These medications are continued until the 10th week of pregnancy, at which time the placenta has taken over the production of all necessary hormones.

IVF Success Rates

The use of IVF with donor eggs overcomes most of the natural barriers to conception and live birth – barriers such as problems with ovulation, fertilization, and egg quality (including chromosomal abnormalities).

See Fertility In Your 30s for more information. You can also view Understanding IVF Success Rates.

The staff of FSMG is very proud of our egg donor program. Since 2003, with the advances in blastocyst culture and preimplantation genetic testing, Arlene J. Morales, MD, FACOG, and Wendy B. Shelly, MD, FACOG have delivered outcomes that are some of the best in the country.

Need to Find an Egg Donor in San Diego?

Click here to access the PureOvum online donor database.

You’re unique.
Your fertility plan should be too.