Everything You Need to Know About an Egg Donor
An egg donor is a fertile woman who donates an oocyte to another female to help her conceive. The entire process is known as egg donation. Egg donation benefits women with conditions like ovarian failure, advanced age, or individuals avoiding congenital abnormalities in the fetus. To be an egg donor, you must be physically and psychologically healthy, have regular periods, and have no family history of inheritable genetic conditions.
Before the egg donation process, your medical facility Newport Beach YourEggs takes you through a psychology program to ensure you do not experience regrets or trauma after the process. In most states, you must sign a contract to ensure you have no legal rights to resulting embryos or children.
What Makes You a Good Candidate for Egg Donation
You can be a good candidate for egg donation if you are between twenty-one and thirty-five years. Females in this age group respond better to fertility drugs and usually have a higher quality and quantity of eggs.
To qualify for egg donation, you should also be free of HIV and hepatitis C. You must also not have a high risk of genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis. If you cannot give a detailed family medical history, you may not qualify for an egg donation.
What Should You Expect During the Egg Donation Process
The egg donation process involves several steps, including:
Psychological Screening
Egg donation can be an emotional experience for the donor. Doctors evaluate the donor’s mental health to ensure the individual is making an informed decision. The psychological screening also ensures you fulfill all the requirements of the egg donation process.
Stopping Your Normal Cycle
Before you start the donation process, your doctor will give you medication to stop your normal menstrual cycle. These medications make it easier to control your response to fertility drugs. The drugs may cause side effects like hot flashes, headaches, fatigue, and body aches.
Stimulating Egg Production
In a normal cycle, only one egg matures. In egg donation, you need to produce several mature eggs. In this stage, your doctor gives you a series of fertility drugs to stimulate your ovaries to produce several eggs. These drugs are self-administered and injected under the skin or into a muscle.
The treatment runs for about ten days consecutively. Some donors experience mild effects like mood swings and tender breasts. During the donation cycle, your doctor will perform frequent blood tests and ultrasound examinations to monitor your drug reaction.
Extraction Process
Before egg retrieval, you will receive a final injection to prepare you for the procedure. Your doctor will do a transvaginal ovarian aspiration to remove the eggs from your ovaries. The provider will insert an ultrasound probe into your vagina and use a needle to extract the egg from each follicle. The entire process takes about twenty to thirty minutes.
An egg donor is a fertile woman who donates an oocyte to another female to help her conceive. To qualify as an egg donor, you must be between twenty-one to thirty-five years, physically and psychologically fit, and have no family history of inheritable genetic issues. Schedule an appointment at YourEggs for egg donation to help an infertile woman have kids.
