Egg Donor Program
The Emory Reproductive Center offers a highly successful egg donor program. Egg donation is offered to women who no longer produce viable oocytes (eggs). This process is similar to the donor sperm program.
Donors are rigorously screened for personal and family health histories and subjected to a battery of physical and psychological exams to assure they are suitable.
Following the screening process, the donor is stimulated with fertility medications and undergoes egg retrieval. The donated eggs are fertilized with the recipient partner's sperm, and the developing embryos are placed in the recipient's uterus for gestation.
There are two types of Egg Donors:
- Known Donor: Usually a friend or relative of the recipient. Cross-generational donors (nieces or daughters) are generally not recommended.
- Anonymous Donor: These are egg donors selected from a pool of young volunteers who have been screened by the Emory Reproductive Center's medical staff.
In addition to completing the physical and psychological testing, our Egg Donor Program Coordinator conducts personal interviews with each donor to ensure that she understands that she must release any claim to a baby born as a result of her donation. Potential donors with any identifiable medical or genetic problems will not be accepted.
Screened donors are matched to the recipient woman's physical characteristics. A family medical history of the donor will be provided to the recipient at the time of the match.
Recipient & Donor Preparation
Once a suitable match has been made, the Emory Reproductive Medicine team works with the recipient and the donor to target a date for the retrieval and transplantation of embryos. This timing is based on the recipient's menstrual cycle and/or the availability of the donor for stimulation and egg retrieval.
The donor will receive medications to stimulate fertility. She must refrain from intercourse from the beginning of hormone stimulation until the menstrual period after her egg retrieval procedure to prevent pregnancy.
Procedure
Eggs are retrieved from the donor with a special needle guided by ultrasonic location. The retrieved eggs are isolated and placed in a culture media in our embryology laboratory.
The sperm from the recipient's male partner is collected and frozen several weeks before the egg retrieval process. The sperm specimen is washed, incubated and then placed with the retrieved donor egg(s). The eggs are checked during this time for fertilization. Once the eggs are fertilized they are ready for implantation. The recipient's uterus must be ready to receive embryos at the precise time of removal of the donor's mature eggs.
The embryo transfer takes place approximately 72 hours after the donor's egg retrieval. A blood pregnancy test is conducted on the recipient approximately 12 days after the transfer.
