To become an egg donor, you must meet the following criteria:
Your body mass index (BMI) is a measure that uses your height and weight to work out if your weight is healthy.
To be accepted as an egg donor your BMI should be between 19 and 35. Your BMI (Body Mass Index) is calculated using your height and weight to make sure you are within the range to become an egg donor.
If you want to find out if you are eligible for egg donation, our application form includes a handy BMI calculator.
Due to the risks to egg quality caused by nicotine, smokers cannot be accepted as egg donors. When you apply to become an egg donor, we ask you if you smoke, and we will test your urine for nicotine at your appointments.
If you used to smoke or are trying to stop smoking, you must have no nicotine in your system for at least three months before your donation application. You should then be free from the effects of nicotine, including e-cigarettes, as they still contain nicotine.
You should be free from the effects of nicotine, so please be aware that passive smoking can give a positive result in your nicotine test.
Having a medical condition – even one for which you take regular medication – doesn't necessarily exclude you from being an egg donor. It's always worth checking with us before you apply. It depends on the condition and whether it is hereditary to any child born from your eggs.
We'll always seek clarification as to the nature of the condition and its potential impact on your health and the health of a donor-conceived child before accepting you as an egg donor.
You can still donate if you are adopted, but you will need to know the full medical history of your biological family on both your maternal and paternal sides until your grandparents. As long as you meet all the other requirements, being adopted won’t affect you being accepted onto our donor programme.
Yes
While there is no direct payment for donating your eggs, you will be compensated for your time. Women who become egg donors will receive £985 for each donation cycle. This covers any expenses for attending each appointment.
We would always say that having your family’s support is important, so we would recommend your partner or family are happy for you to donate before you apply to be an egg donor.
From the moment you apply to the donation of your eggs and beyond, we will ensure you are well looked after by offering support throughout; you will not be on your own, our team have been looking after egg donors for over 35 years, so we will make sure you get the right care and advice at every step of your donation.
We make sure that during the egg donation process, you attend counselling sessions with our team to ensure you fully understand the implications associated with your decision.
Our counsellors BICA-registered , are experts in their field, and fully trained to give you the support and the right advice from the very beginning. They will make sure that you are ready to become an egg donor and that the decision is the right one for you.
Our Egg Donors UK has been supporting donors for over 35 years; they understand what an incredible act of kindness donating is, so they are there to support and give you advice on our donor programme. You can meet our expert and friendly Donor Team here.
We have lots of patients who are looking for an egg donor to help them reach their dream and have a family of their very own. We have a shortage of egg donors from ethnic backgrounds, and this does mean that donor choices are very limited for our patients who want a donor with the same ethnicity as themselves. They may have to wait for a long time to find that donor, so we always ask for donations from varied backgrounds.
No. It is extremely unlikely that donating eggs will affect your future fertility. Women who have donated eggs in the past have shown no adverse effect on their fertility in the years following the procedure.
We have measures in place to reduce any risks and our team will monitor you closely during stimulation and after egg collection. The egg collection carries a risk of infection and bleeding. There is also a risk of hyperstimulation - a condition where the ovaries respond quickly to the drugs, producing more eggs than expected.
This is why hormone tests are carried out as part of the screening process, as it allows us to see how your ovaries are likely to respond. You are also monitored regularly once the drugs have been administered in order to prevent hyperstimulation. If this occurs, some women feel bloated and abdominal discomfort, but you will be advised to take pain relief and drink plenty of water.
Please be assured that you will be in safe hands with a team of experts that will make sure you are cared for at every step of your donation.
No. In a donation cycle, we will collect all of the eggs that would have been lost naturally in that month, so this will not impact you later on in life or make you run out of eggs.
More women than ever are now using egg donors to have a baby, and there are many reasons for this. Some of the most common reasons are:
From your very first appointment to egg collection it can take up to three months. The process takes this amount of time as you will be required to undergo various screening tests, medical history checks and counselling sessions before we can accept you as a donor at Egg Donors UK. Once you're accepted, and you have been registered with the HFEA, it can take up to three weeks to stimulate your ovaries using daily injections to produce mature eggs. During this time, you will attend a local centre for ultrasound scans, blood tests and screening.
All of your eggs are donated. Your donation could go to a recipient couple or our frozen egg bank for use in the future. If your eggs go to a recipient couple, your donated eggs are fertilised in our laboratory using sperm from the male partner of the recipient couple. The resulting embryos are then transferred into the womb of the recipient woman to begin growing as in a normal pregnancy. Any remaining embryos are frozen and stored for future use.
We take blood and urine samples to test for infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis, and Chlamydia. We also check your chromosomes and test if you are a carrier of Cystic Fibrosis. We also carry out a transvaginal ultrasound scan to ensure that your ovaries and uterus are healthy and normal.
Drugs are taken in the form of daily injections. These drugs mimic the action of the body’s natural hormones. Drug doses and combinations are calculated for each donor depending on a number of factors including age, medical history, body size etc. Details will be given to you in the form of an individual ‘protocol’.
The medication is given in the form of injections and you will be required to administer the injections yourself at home. You will attend an appointment with a fertility nurse who will teach you how to administer the injections in the right way. This appointment is called a ‘prep appointment’ and can be done virtually or in person at the clinic to meet your preference.
Some methods of contraception may need to be changed before being accepted onto the programme, depending on the donor’s individual hormone levels. Our team will discuss your options if this applies to you, we will always give you expert guidance and ensure that you are fully informed about your contraceptive choices.
We need to know the details of any genetic illness within your family. We ask for medical history for your siblings, parents, and grandparents on maternal and paternal sides of the family to ensure no known serious medical disability or family history of hereditary disorders.
Appointments will be scheduled to fit in with your plans. Once you have been selected by a patient who needs donor eggs for their treatment, the donation process from this point is carefully timed which means that you will be asked to come to our clinic, at specific times on specific days.
Between six and seven. These include your virtual appointments. We are here to support you through every stage while you are part of our donation programme, and we ask every donor to talk to our counsellors (this is a virtual appointment). This appointment will be followed by a virtual consultation with the doctor. You will normally have three or four monitoring appointments and then one visit for egg collection.
If you are following our local programme, you will have most appointments at one of our local centres and will be asked to make the trip to Manchester for specialist appointments only. If your local centre is Manchester, all appointments will be carried out at our main clinic.
Virtual Appointment:
Local Centre:
Manchester Clinic:
The reason donors have to visit the main clinic in Manchester is that it regulated with HFEA to carry out procedures such as egg collection.
Egg collections are carried out under general anaesthetic. During the post-operative period, you may experience some abdominal discomfort similar to period pain. Paracetamol (if you are not allergic to it) will usually control any discomfort, which generally subsides in 2 to 3 days.
You will rest in the clinic for about two hours after the procedure and then you will be able to go home. You will need someone to take you home as you are not advised to drive for 24 hours after the sedation.
As part of the application process, you will provide some information about your characteristics and we spend a lot of time trying to match your characteristics with that of a patient who needs donor eggs.
All parts of the cycle are carried out on an outpatient basis, which does not require you to stay overnight.
Yes. Under the 10 family limit rule, any single egg donor can only create a maximum of 10 families from her eggs. We recommend a maximum donation of six cycles only.
After your eggs have been collected, you will be taken to our private ward, where the nursing team will take over your care before you go home. Here, they will ensure you are feeling well enough to be discharged.
Due to the use of general anaesthetic, we recommend that you do not drive for 24 hours after egg recovery, so you will need to bring someone along with you to accompany you home.
Following egg collection, you may feel tired, bloated and have some mild abdominal pain. There is also the likelihood of some light vaginal bleeding for a few days afterwards. These symptoms are perfectly normal after egg recovery.
Should you need to take something for the pain, paracetamol is recommended. You will be given our contact information, including an emergency out-of-hours number that you can contact with any concerns you have once you get home, we will be at the other end of the phone should you need any aftercare.
Many donors like to find out if any babies have been born as a result of their egg donation. You are entitled to know if your eggs have been used successfully, including the number of children that have been born, whether they are boys or girls and the year of their birth. You will not be given any information which could lead to those children being identified.
The law was changed in 2005 so that all new HFEA-registered donors are potentially identifiable to any conceived children once they reach the age of 18. Until then, they only have access to non-identifying information, such as your height, weight, hair and eye colour. Once they are 18 they can then contact the HFEA and obtain further details.
The recipients of your donated eggs are the legal parents of any child born. Therefore, you have no financial or legal responsibility for any donor-conceived children now or in the future.
No. Donations are done anonymously, recipient patients will not know who you are whilst they are going through the process. The expectant parents are usually given very basic information about you, which you yourself put on your Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) form at the time of registering as a donor. This information can include your hair colour, eye colour, and height. You will also write a short description of yourself called a Pen Picture which can include any skills, interests or hobbies. Along with a Good Will message for the donor conceived child. More detailed information is available to the child once it reaches the age of 18, which enables them to potentially identify you if they wish.
Our donors come from all walks of life - all with the same desire to help other women and all with something in common - great kindness, empathy, and commitment to giving the gift of life. Here is what one of our egg donors said about Egg Donors UK
"I was treated with greatest care during my stay at the clinic and I've also been under their care after my egg donation. I have to say they have a have highly trained team in every department.
I couldn't have asked for better treatment and clinic staff who took care of me during the whole process. I was informed about each step during the process. They have even designed an app which helps you with taking medications as well as appointments and important information.
The process of donating eggs itself was conducted in a very professional and caring way. Doctors and nurses informed me about everything and the team made me feel safe. If I could choose again I would donate my eggs again at this clinic without thinking twice."
Kamila
Being an egg donor with Egg Donors UK is one of the most fulfilling and rewarding things you can do. You can help to change someone’s life by being amazing. We would like to thank you for your interest in our FAQs, and for taking the time to consider giving the gift of life and becoming an egg donor.
If you would like to know more and feel that being an egg donor is right for you then you can apply online here to start off your egg donor application.
Yes - you can sign up for our newsletter on our website, where you will receive all our latest news, blog and advice about becoming an egg donor. If you are still researching it or considering it – our monthly newsletter covers different questions and topics each month.
You do not need to stop the combined contraceptive pill until you start treatment, at which point you can will stop it whilst taking the injections, ensuring to use condoms where required. You can restart this a 7 to 10 days following on from your egg collection.
You may be asked the stop the progesterone only pill (the mini pill) to induce a bleed, but you can start this again a 7 to 10 days following on from your egg collection.
Egg donation is a process where a woman donates her eggs to help another woman conceive a child. It often involves hormonal stimulation to produce multiple eggs, which are then retrieved and fertilised in a lab.
Typically, egg donors are healthy women between the ages of 18 and 35, with no history of genetic diseases.
Some donors can find aspects of the egg donation process uncomfortable, but any discomfort can be managed with over-the-counter medication such as paracetamol.
No, you do not need to have children to donate eggs.
Egg Donors UK has a growing number of donation centres across the UK. Visit our location page to find the nearest centre to start your journey.
We conduct your initial consultations, blood tests, health checks, and scans at a local centres so you only need to travel to our central treatment hub in Manchester for specialist appointments. This means less travel and more convenience for you. Here's exactly what you can undergo at each:
Virtual Appointment:
Local Centre:
Manchester Clinic:
The reason donors have to visit the main clinic in Manchester is that it regulated with HFEA to carry out procedures such as egg collection.
Transform a life, by creating one. Become an egg donor today.
Manchester Fertility Services Ltd, trading as Egg Donors UK.
Egg Donors UK is the registered trademark of Manchester Fertility Services Ltd. Company #1902981
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