Are you the ideal egg donor?

What type of woman is the ‘perfect’ egg donor? You may assume that to be accepted as an egg donor, you have to meet certain beliefs relating to your appearance, education or job.

But the UK isn’t like America, where young, attractive and educated women are in demand by egg donor agencies, who command high prices for their eggs.

The fact is that you could actually be the egg donor someone’s been waiting for. Every person who needs an egg donor has their own unique ‘wish list’ of qualities they’re looking for.

So there is actually no such thing as the ‘model’ egg donor. As long as you meet the basic egg donation criteria, there’s nothing stopping you from helping someone have a baby, regardless of how you look, what you do for a living, how well you did at school, what your religious belief is or your ethnicity.

This is the main criteria that matters for egg donation:

Your age:We don’t put an age limit of 35 in place because older women aren’t desired as egg donors. It’s simply down to biology. Fertility declines once you hit 30 and particularly so after the age of 35, affecting egg quality. We have to ensure that our patients have the best quality eggs, that will successfully fertilise and withstand all the fertility treatment processes and procedures including potentially freezing and thawing, to give them the best chance of pregnancy.

Your weight:Your weight matters because we have to protect your health as an egg donor. You need to have a BMI between 19 - 35 – there’s a risk that egg donation and the necessary ovarian stimulation could affect your own health, increasing the chances of potential side-effects such as Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome. Weight also impacts on your own fertility and the quality of your eggs. So we ask that all of our egg donors have a BMI within the normal range.

Your lifestyle:Smoking may seem like an odd criteria to exclude an apparently healthy and fertile woman from donating eggs. Many women who smoke have no problem getting pregnant after all. But the toxins in cigarettes do affect fertility and egg quality. If you smoke but you want to still donate eggs, if you can completely quit for a minimum of three months – and this includes e-cigarettes- you may be able to become an egg donor. We do screen all our egg donors throughout the process for nicotine.

Your own ovarian reserve:We have to ensure that you have a good quantity of eggs to be able to donate. Donating eggs doesn’t affect your own fertility, but if your ovarian reserve is low, we would not accept you as an egg donor.

We’re proud that all of our amazing egg donors are women from all walks of life. Their varied backgrounds, qualities and attributes means we have egg donors to suit everyone, and can help all those who need an egg donor to have a baby, with no waiting list.

Explore the egg donation criteria here. If you’ve got any questions, call our dedicated egg donation team on 0161 300 2734.

If you’d like to apply to our award-winning egg donation programme, fill in this simple initial application form and we’ll get back to you.