Egg Donation and Egg Sharing

An egg donor should be under 28 years of age (to ensure that her eggs are fertile). She will go through the IVF process of drug injection and vaginal ultrasound egg collection, allowing her eggs to be given to the recipient. Once the eggs are collected from the donor, they are fertilised with sperm from the recipient’s partner. Although it is possible to transfer embryos two or three days later, embryos are more usually frozen for transfer later once the recipient’s uterine lining has been prepared for pregnancy with hormone tablets of estrogen and progestogen.

Egg donation is the only treatment for women who are unable to produce their eggs. Despite its success, the use of egg donation remains limited because of the shortage of volunteer egg donors.