This treatment involves using donated eggs to help achieve a pregnancy.
Who needs donated eggs?
There are several situations where donated eggs can be used to help you to create a family.
These include:
- Women who are already in menopause
- Women with a low ovarian reserve or poor egg quality
- Same sex male couples
- To avoid passing on a genetic or inherited disease
What are the different types of egg donors?
We offer three options for patients who need to use donated eggs:
Local egg donors
We recruit egg donors for patients attending our clinic.
There is a long waiting list for these donors and the length of the waiting list depends on the number of egg donors who come forward each year.
Up to date waiting times for receiving a locally recruited egg donor will be discussed with you at your clinic appointments.
Some of the women donating eggs are known as ‘egg sharers’. These are women who need self-funded IVF treatment and offer to donate half the eggs retrieved to reduce the cost of their IVF. We will tell you if your donor is donating all the eggs retrieved or acting as an egg sharer.
Known egg donors
You might have a friend or family member who is willing to donate eggs to you.
All egg donors must undergo medical screening before they are accepted as a donor.
If you are interested in using a known egg donor, please contact the team for more information. Egg donors must be under 36 years of age and have a good ovarian reserve, though sometimes we will agree to an older known egg donor if she has a good ovarian reserve.
What will I know about the donor?
You are informed of the donor’s physical characteristic such as hair colour, eye colour, blood group, height and weight. The donor might write some information about their education, job and interests but not all donors will do this.
What does the donor know about me?
If the donor is unknown to you, they are unable to find out any information about you and the treatment you are having.
What are the donor’s rights?
The donor will have made an agreement with us to donate eggs. They have no obligations to you individually. The donor has the right to withdraw from treatment at any stage prior to embryo transfer and for any reason. You may not be told why this decision has been made. If the donor is an egg-sharer, she will have signed an agreement with us about how the eggs will be shared between you both. This is an individual arrangement for each patient, and you will be told about the terms of this agreement before treatment starts. You will not be able to influence this agreement.
Who are the legal parents when egg donation has been used?
UK law states that the person who gives birth to a child is always recognised as the child’s legal mother, regardless of their gender identity or whether they hold a Gender Recognition Certificate.
In most cases, a spouse or civil partner of the birth mother will automatically be recognised as the child’s second legal parent or may become a legal parent through completion of the appropriate consent forms (WP/PP forms). However, this may not apply in all circumstances involving trans patients or partners.
In particular, a trans man who is the partner of the person giving birth may not be recognised as a legal parent at birth, even if married or in a civil partnership, and even where consent forms have been completed.
If this applies to you, it is important that you are aware that additional legal steps (such as adoption or other legal processes) may be required to establish legal parenthood. We strongly recommend that you seek independent legal advice before treatment.
What are the child’s rights?
As the law currently stands, your child can approach the HFEA (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority) when they reach the age of 16, for non-identifying information about the donor. At age 18, they can contact the HFEA for identifying information about the donor.
What should I tell my child about their origins and what should I say?
Our counsellor will help you explore this issue before you start any fertility treatment.
You might consider such matters as whether, and how, you will wish to tell your potential child(ren) about their origin through egg donation. There are no hard and fast rules about the best time to tell, research suggests that it is better to start early. This allows you to become familiar with talking to your child(ren) about how they were conceived so that, by the time they are old enough to ask questions, it is already part of their life story.
Donors are encouraged to provide detailed information including a short description of themselves and a message of goodwill, to any child(ren) conceived. You may find this helpful for when your child(ren) start to ask detailed questions. It is a good idea to talk to us about how you could approach telling your child. The Donor Conception Network also has information leaflets and personal stories.
How many times can I have treatment?
Due to the limited number of locally recruited egg donors, we usually only offer two treatment cycles using fresh eggs. This is reviewed regularly depending on the number of patients waiting for donated eggs. Each treatment cycle might generate spare embryos for additional frozen embryo transfers, but this is not guaranteed.
If you have a known donor or are importing eggs from an egg bank it might be possible to offer additional treatment cycles.
What should I do now?
If you are interested in knowing more about egg donation treatment, please contact the team.
