The Egg Donation Process

To begin your egg donation journey, you must first submit our egg donation application. If your egg donor application is approved, your coordinator will get to know you during a video interview. You’ll undergo a screening, which will give you the chance to provide profile information (while ensuring that no identifying information is displayed) and organize your pictures. 

Once we get a great sense of who you are and are confident that we’re both on the same page, your egg donation coordinator will activate your egg donor profile to match with wonderful intended parents.

Being an egg donor allows you to offer an amazing gift to a loving couple or single parent. At Hatch, we understand the importance of providing egg donors like yourself with comprehensive information about your match. To ensure that the couple or individual receiving your donated eggs is ready to be parents, they are thoroughly screened and interviewed by our staff. The IVF cycle begins only after the intended parents and you agree to enter into this experience together.

Your emotional health is a top priority to our agency because we want you to be completely comfortable with egg donation so it‘s the life-affirming experience it’s designed to be. We also offer careful screenings of mental illness and psychiatric disorders that could be inherited by a child. These screenings are led by a licensed mental health professional and are standardized with many questions.

Gain the opportunity to review your family genetic history with Hatch’s genetic screenings. This evaluation is conducted by a board-certified geneticist who will interview you over the phone to:

• Track your family history.
• Construct your family tree.
• Write a comprehensive genetic history report 

During this time, you confidentially disclose as much family history (and medical history) information as possible. You will also be tested for common genetic diseases when you are matched at your in-person medical screening. 

Note: We provide the utmost patient confidentiality and do not require that you disclose your egg donation to your family or friends.

Day 3 FSH Test

Kindly track your menstrual cycle even before you are chosen as an egg donor, and once chosen notify your coordinator of the first day of your cycle when your period starts. On the third day of your menses, your ovulation levels will be tested by most doctors, a process which can be delayed by a month if not conducted exactly on this day. This test is conducted by the treating IVF physician and consists of a blood test and possibly an ultrasound.

Medical Testing

Hatch also provides inclusive FDA-required tests for infectious diseases. The following screenings apply to all egg donors and include:

• Sexually transmitted diseases
• AIDS
• Hepatitis
• Urine Drug Screen
• Cystic Fibrosis Genetic Screening
• Vaginal ultrasound of the ovaries to count resting follicles

Protect your rights as an egg donor with a legal contract that facilitates the agreement between you and your matched intended parents. This contract serves to:

• Define parental rights.
• Protect party anonymity.
• Gain your complete informed consent in giving up the legal rights to the eggs which are retrieved from your body.

Hatch provides expert legal counsel referrals at no cost to donors to ensure that your decision to become an egg donor has your full consent and final approval.

To ensure that your egg donation is successful, you’ll synchronize your menstrual cycle with the intended biological mother by taking birth control pills for 10 days*. Following this, you’ll receive a series of injections to deliver fertility hormones that stimulate egg maturity. During this time you’ll have regular physician appointments (normally 4-6) to monitor morning blood samples and egg development.

*In cases where fresh IVF cycles are being done.

The egg retrieval procedure takes approximately 30 minutes, and you’ll be provided with “Twilight Sedation” for maximum comfort. Because of this, it’s important that you have a friend to check you out of the clinic and drive you home. During the procedure, an ultrasound offers guidance while the eggs are retrieved through the vaginal wall via a needle. After the procedure, you will get the chance to lie down and recover. However, the procedure is not largely invasive so this recovery period shouldn’t be extensive. We recommend taking the remainder of this day off, and you should be able to return to normal activities the next day. 

Your period will begin approximately two weeks after this procedure. Please note that when taking these fertility medications, you’re still highly fertile and able to conceive during this month, so be sure to use protection if you have intercourse.