Becoming an Egg Donor – what we offer
For many struggling with fertility problems, egg donation may be the only suitable treatment option for them to build a family. Donating your eggs is an amazing act of altruism. However, there are several things to be considered.
Current donor guidelines state that eggs should not be taken from egg donors aged 36 or over. We are required to observe the age limit unless there are exceptional reasons not to do so. An example of an exceptional circumstance might be where a woman seeking treatment with donor eggs has a strong desire to have a genetic relationship to her donor conceived child and her sister has offered to donate eggs but is a little over the age limit.
Before a person can be accepted as an egg donor, they will be required to undergo certain screening tests to ascertain that they are healthy and free from any serious medical conditions or infections, in order to reduce the risks of passing on genetic diseases or abnormalities to any resultant child. All UK egg donors are also required to give a complete medical and family history showing that they have no personal or family history of a significant genetic disease and be willing to be tested for infections such as HIV, hepatitis and syphilis. We exclude anyone who might have an increased risk of passing on a hereditary disorder.
When you come for a consultation with us, we explain the practicalities of being an egg donor and the nature of the information given to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) about you. It is important for you to understand that any children born following treatment with your donated eggs have the legal right at the age of 18 to be given identifying information about you, if they do not already have this information. We also explain that if a child is born with a hereditary condition that the donor should reasonably have known about and failed to disclose, then they may be sued by the parents of the child.
All potential egg donors are required to attend at least one counselling session to ensure that they have fully considered the implications and are aware of all that is involved in egg donation. This includes the potential emotional effects of the donation on themselves and their family and the legal aspects of egg donation.
When a child born as a result of egg donation reaches the age of 18 (if they were conceived after 1 April 2005), the HFEA is required to provide to them at their request (after appropriate counselling and notification to the donor) all the non-identifying information and in addition, the donor‘s full name (and any previous names), date of birth and town or district of birth, last known address (or address at the time of donation). We therefore recommend that you keep our clinic notified with your up to date address.
All donors must be altruistic and are not allowed to be paid for their donation. However, the HFEA allow egg donors to be compensated reasonable expenses up to a specified limit. Donors can receive compensation of up to £750 per donation ‘cycle’ to cover their costs (a donation cycle is one complete round of treatment, at the end of which the eggs are collected and donated). On occasions more can be claimed if expenses for things like travel, accommodation and childcare are higher than this.