Home » Using Donor Egg, Sperm, or Surrogacy

The use of donated eggs, sperm and/or the option for gestational surrogacy has helped thousands of couples, who might otherwise be unable, to achieve their dream of becoming parents. Donor egg and gestational surrogacy require advanced technologies (IVF) whereas donor sperm can be used with basic treatments or with IVF.

Using Donor Eggs with IVF

Are you considering using IVF with donor egg for your pregnancy?  If so, you aren’t alone.   Thousands of women go through IVF using donor eggs every year.  Some reasons to consider donor egg use:

  • Women of Advanced Maternal Age (especially women age 40 and above)
  • Women who have poor quality egg(s) or non-functioning ovaries
  • Women with poor ovarian function/diminished ovarian reserve
  • Women who are carriers of known genetic disorders

IVF using Donor Eggs Process

Below is a simplified explanation of the donor and recipient’s role in the egg donation process:

Donor:

  • Donor is carefully screened and tested
  • Donor is matched via Recipients’ requested criteria and facial characteristics
  • Donor’s ovaries are stimulated to produce multiple eggs
  • Eggs are retrieved via aspiration
  • Donor eggs and your partner’s sperm are combined to make embryos

Recipient:

  • Health for carrying a pregnancy is assessed
  • One or two of the best embryos are transferred into your uterus or embryos are screened via PGT (preimplantation genetic testing) to be sure the embryo has the correct number of chromosomes, frozen and then transferred once the results are available.
  • Any additional viable embryos are frozen and stored for future use

The Reproductive Medicine Group Has 3 Egg Donation Programs Offering Donor Eggs:

  1. Traditional Egg Donor Cycle
  2. Shared Egg Donor Cycle

Donor Egg Program at the Reproductive Medicine Group

The Reproductive Medicine Group offers a comprehensive egg donation program. Donor eggs allow a woman whose own eggs are no longer healthy or have been depleted, to experience pregnancy and birth. This donor egg program benefits women, who for a variety of reasons, can’t produce their own eggs or produce eggs with diminished fertility potential. The pregnancy rates for donor egg  exceeds 50% per cycle.

During the egg donation procedure, eggs are retrieved from a donor’s ovaries, fertilized in the laboratory with the sperm from the recipient’s partner and one to two of the resulting embryos are returned to the recipient patient’s uterus. Additional healthy embryos, if available, can be cryopreserved. In cases of male infertility, intracytoplasmic sperm injection is often used in the egg fertilization process.

At The Reproductive Medicine Group, anonymous egg donors come from all ethnic backgrounds and are between 20 and 33 years old.   We adhere to FDA regulations and the guidelines for screening egg donors that have been set by The American Society For Reproductive Medicine . Our program compensates egg donors $7,000 at the completion of a cycle.

Traditional Donor Egg Cycle

In a traditional donor egg cycle, one recipient patient receives all donated eggs retrieved from one donor.  The Reproductive Medicine Group recruits egg donors to match with our recipient patients.   Donor egg recipient patients can use a known egg donor, an agency egg donor, or an anonymous egg donor recruited by The Reproductive Medicine Group’s egg donation program.   Agency and known egg donors are required to retain services for from a lawyer trained in third party reproduction. Donor egg recipients reimburse egg donors for her time and travel.  The Reproductive Medicine Group’s donor egg program is anonymous; no identifying information is released to either party.

Shared Donor Egg Cycle

In a shared donor egg cycle, the eggs collected from an egg  donor are shared with two recipients. All three women involved remain anonymous, but the two women receiving the eggs split the fees involving the egg donor’s testing, monitoring, medication, egg retrieval and reimbursement to the donor for time and travel.  Shared donation does not affect the chance of pregnancy.  The egg donation program is anonymous; no identifying information is released to either donor egg recipients or egg donor.

Egg Donor Testing Requirements

Potential egg donors are tested for ovarian reserve and screened for sexually transmitted diseases according to FDA regulations and ASRM guidelines.  They also undergo a physical examination, genetic screening and testing, a psychological evaluation, drug and nicotine testing and a review of past medical and family history.  Donors are between 20 and 33 years of age and are required to have no history of drug or alcohol abuse, psychological problems or chronic illness.  Some will have a history of successful conception and pregnancy.

Egg Donor Recipient Testing Requirements

Women who plan to use donor eggs for IVF undergo an educational session with a psychologist and testing to ensure that their uterus is able to carry a pregnancy.  Both the recipient and partner are screened for sexually transmitted diseases.   A semen analysis for the male partner will be performed.

Donor Egg Bank

NEW at The Reproductive Medicine Group

We are proud to announce a new partnership with My Egg Bank for donor egg options.

Egg Donation Consents

The donor egg recipient, her partner and the egg donor all participate in the consenting process to proceed with the In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) cycle.

Donor Egg - Who Are Our Egg Donors?

Health young women selected to participate as egg donors are between the ages of 20 and 33.  They have been screened by the Special Services Coordinators and a physican at the Reproductive Medicine Group.  Once routine screening is completed, the egg donor is seen by a psychologist and a genetic counselor to confirm their suitability to participate as an egg donor.  Testing is extensive and includes:

  • comprehensive assessment of personal and family medical history
  • drug, nicotine, and sexually transmitted disease testing (STD)
  • MMPI or PAI psychological screening.

After  the screening has been completed, the egg donor can be offered to potential recipients in the program.

The program affords compensation of $7,000, for the donor’s time and travel after the donor completes  the cycle.  Our donors receive the highest level of medical care and counseling so they fully understand the egg donation process.  The majority of egg donors find the process to be a positive one and often sign up to participate in a subsequent egg donation cycle.

What About Donor Egg Recruitment?

Young women who participate as anonymous oocyte donors for The Reproductive Medicine Group are recruited, interviewed and screened by our highly experienced Special Services Coordinators and RMG physicians.  Our egg donors live in the Tampa Bay region.  They come to us through recommendations from prior egg donors and information they receive at their college campuses, newspaper advertisements, and the internet.  Donors complete a comprehensive questionnaire including a written essay portion, and are given extensive information about the egg donation process before they start testing.

We also work with several donor agencies who provide donors from throughout the United States.  Although agency fees add a significant cost to the recipient couple,  agency use can potentially result in faster matching of donors to recipients.

Using a Gestational Surrogate (Gestational Carrier)