Preparing to donate your eggs

In addition, you’ll take part in a number of ultrasounds that will be performed during the cycle to monitor the healthy growth of your eggs in your ovaries. This is a painless procedure that entails inserting a wand into the vagina to produce an ultrasound image so your doctor can analyse it.

Fertility hormones & medications

Although there can be variations, at the beginning of the donation cycle egg donors take birth control pills for about 10 days to sync cycles with the individual receiving the egg transfer. After these 10 days, egg donors receive a series of injections that follow this schedule: 

• Lupron injections for 10 days, which slow down the menstrual cycle

And injections administering one of the following fertility hormones for the next 10 days following the completed lupron injection series:

• Gonal F
• FHS (Follicle Stimulating Hormone)

So for approximately 2 weeks, egg donors receive hormone injections administered with a small needle, often in the thigh or belly. Egg donors can give themselves the injections or have another adult  assist them.

The purpose of fertility medications

Women are born with approximately 400,000 eggs and, during each menstrual cycle, the female reproductive system selects 30 or more eggs to mature for a potential fertilization. During an egg donation cycle, increased doses of these egg-maturing hormones are offered so that additional eggs will mature (typically 8-15 more) for the egg retrieval procedure.