The beauty of the egg donation process

The egg donation process at our Virginia fertility center provides a life changing gift for women and men who need donor eggs to become parents. Women who become egg donors can help make pregnancy possible for patients who cannot conceive another way. Our egg donation program has high standards for egg donors that allow us to make dreams of parenthood come true.

The egg donation process for donors

Our Virginia fertility center begins the egg donation process with a simple online screening application. After reviewing a donor’s application, our office will email the woman if she meets our basic age, health and availability requirements.

She will then need to complete a more comprehensive application that includes questions about her personal, reproductive and family health. We will reach out to the woman if she passes this second application. Our team will schedule an appointment with her, and the process proceeds as follows.

• Initial appointment. Our nurses ask follow-up questions, thoroughly explain the egg donation process and schedule medical appointments. Some of these appointments must take place during certain stages of the potential egg donor’s menstrual cycle.
• Medical evaluations. The egg donor will undergo a complete medical exam, including a mental health evaluation and reproductive health examination.
• Once a donor has been medically cleared, we provide nonidentifying information about their health, ethnicity, personality and interests to hopeful parents who are seeking a donor.
• Ovarian stimulation. We use a delicate balance of medications to stimulate the donor’s ovaries to produce many eggs during one cycle. We monitor the donor carefully to ensure she is responding well to the medication and her eggs are maturing.
• Retrieval. When her eggs are mature, we will schedule her egg retrieval. We will place the donor under sedation and use a hollow needle guided by ultrasound to retrieve her eggs. The donor spends a short period of time recovering and can go home the same day.

A safe decision for egg donors

The health, safety and well-being of our donors is at the forefront of our Virginia fertility center’s egg donation program. We take patient confidentiality very seriously and maintain strict anonymity throughout the donation process and afterward. To learn more about egg donation, contact our office.