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Click here for Conceiving Through Egg Donation (4 of 10): Finding an Egg Donor.

Finding Your Egg Donor through a Private Agency

There are a number of companies, unaffiliated with any particular medical facility, which serve as egg donor brokers. Finding a donor through an egg donation agency offers a number of advantages which give you more control over the selection process. You will be able to review hundreds of egg donor profiles from candidates all over the country, each with much more detailed information than your clinic would offer, including photographs. Any eggs retrieved would be all yours; no shared cycles. You can choose to work strictly anonymously or not.

Most egg donation agencies have password-protected data bases on their Web sites, available to clients to view after they register. Some require a fee to view the data base. Excellent donors may be found this way, but there are a number of things you should keep in mind when looking at agencies (and chances are you will be looking at many).

Firstly, unlike your clinic, egg donation agencies perform no medical tests. They “pre-screen” candidates. This includes assembling information gathered through written applications and supporting materials such as driver’s licenses, photographs, and school transcripts. Your clinic will be responsible for medically screening the donor only after you have made your selection.

Many who manage these agencies have no medical or even legal training at all.

The Northeast Assisted Fertility Group offers each egg donor $10,000, payable immediately after the retrieval.  The compensation is agreed on beforehand and does not correspond to the number or quality of eggs retrieved.

There are no laws regarding how much you can get paid to be an egg donor. However, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) establishes ethical guidelines for egg donor compensation; the current cap is $10,000 per cycle (egg donors get paid for the time and effort of the cycle, not for the eggs retrieved). Other programs may offer more than $10,000, but keep in mind that the egg donor, recipient, and clinic would all be working unethically under these circumstances.

Click here for Conceiving Through Egg Donation (3 of 10): Egg Donor Candidates.

Finding Your Egg Donor through Your Own IVF Program

If your IVF (in-vitro fertilization) clinic has its own egg donor program, you may find your donor through their own pool. Although these programs are typically anonymous and do not show photographs of the egg donor candidates, they present non-identifying information as well as screening results. Some of the bigger clinics have waiting lists up to a year long for egg donors. It’s probably a good idea to put your name on the list even if you choose to look at other sources in your search.

Since egg donors are in great demand and costs are high, clinics usually match two recipients to each donor for a “shared cycle.” This means that the retrieved donor eggs will be divided equally between two recipients, who also share the costs of the procedures and egg donor compensation. One recipient is considered “primary” in case there are too few eggs to share (fewer than about twelve). The secondary recipient in that case would not be responsible for the cost, which then becomes the full responsibility of the primary recipient.  It may be possible to do a non-shared cycle at your clinic; keep in mind the cost will be higher.

What are the qualifications to be an egg donor?

You must be over 21 and in excellent health with a normal height and weight (your body mass index, or BMI, should not exceed 27). You must be familiar with the medical history of your parents and extended family (so women who were adopted traditionally are ineligible). You should not smoke, drink, or engage in risky behaviors.  Distinguished academic achievement and attractiveness are especially valued characteristics. The ethnic backgrounds in greatest demand are Caucasian and Asian (especially Chinese and Indian). There is no official maximum age, but the best candidates are under 30. Most candidates over 30 are hard to match unless they have donated successfully before.

In order to be an egg donor, you will fill out a lot of forms and answer a lot of questions. It is important to be as honest as possible, so the right match can be made for you. Your honesty, maturity, and responsibility levels will be evaluated during your psychological screening, so only the dedicated need apply.

This is a comprehensive guide to conceiving through egg donation, which looks at the entire egg donation process from a variety of angles. Please click any of the headings below to read the full article.

1. Introduction – Conceiving with donor eggs occurs in three stages: the donor search, the donor screening, and the IVF cycle. (Beginning to think about using donor eggs?)
2. Adoption – Using donor eggs means that your child will have a maternal genetic relationship to another woman, typically a complete stranger. (If it’s Not My Baby, Why Not Just Adopt?)
3. Egg Donor Candidates – IVF clinics & independent egg donor programs reach potential egg donors through advertising, mostly through Web and classified ads in newspapers. Put “egg donor” into any search engine… (Who Would Want to Be an Egg Donor?)
4. Finding an Egg Donor – If your in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic has its own egg donation program, you may find your donor through their own pool. (Finding Your Egg Donor through Your Own IVF Program)
5. Using a Private Agency – A number of companies, unaffiliated with any medical facility, serve as egg donor brokers. Finding a donor through an egg donation agency offers a number of advantages… (Finding Your Egg Donor through a Private Agency)
6. Egg Donor Profiles –