What's Involved?
The procedure for obtaining eggs from the ovary is a complex one, but our doctors and nurses will guide you through it every step of the way.
What is your role?
- Normally, during the menstrual cycle, the ovaries produce and release a single egg. The egg donation process bypasses this mechanism and allows for the development of multiple eggs.
- In order to accomplish this, the donor's ovaries are temporarily inactivated with a medication called Lupron. This medication is administered daily by injection and its mild side effects are quickly and completely reversible.
- In order to allow multiple eggs to develop, daily injections of fertility drugs (FSH and LH) are needed and our nurses will instruct you how to self administer these medications.
- Our doctors closely monitor the egg development with blood tests and ultrasound examinations of the ovaries, requiring approximate 5 visits to the clinic.
- When eggs are mature, they are recovered from the ovary during a trans-vaginal ultrasound guided aspiration procedure. The procedure is performed under sedation. The procedure requires 30 minutes to complete and the recovery period after the procedure is short.
- Although a donor is able to go home the same day, we ask that she rest at home for the remainder of the day and she should plan to be absent from work or school that day.
- Some discomfort may persist for 48-72 hrs after the procedure.
- After the retrieval procedure, the donor’s involvement with the program will be complete, but it may take 2-3 weeks for the effects of the medication to fully leave her body.
What happens next?
- Once the eggs are obtained, they are fertilized (combined with sperm) and the developing embryos are placed in the uterus of the recipient after several days of growth in the lab.
- We ask that the donor relinquish all claims to the eggs, embryos or children born as a result of the donation process.
- Donors complete a consent form outlining this must be signed prior to the donation process.
