Egg Sharing for Donors

Becoming an egg share donor offers some women a way of reducing the costs of their IVF or ICSI treatment and also helping other women to have IVF or ICSI treatment using donor eggs. Complete the egg share donor checklist to see if you may be suitable to be an egg sharer and significantly reduce the costs of your IVF treatment.

Essentially, the recipient of the sharer’s donor eggs pays the greater part of the cost of the donor’s treatment and the cost of a standard package of fertility drugs for the donor. The donor is responsible for the cost of the reduced fee and for the cost of any drugs she requires in addition to the standard package.

Egg sharers are cared for by the usual team of clinical, scientific and administration staff at MFS, and also benefit from contact with the egg and embryo donation coordinator, Donna Rea-Gardner.

Who may benefit from egg sharing donor treatment?

Women who require IVF or ICSI treatment and who have to self-fund their treatment can reduce the costs of their treatment by becoming an egg share donor, if they meet the rigorous screening criteria for donors, including:

must be under 36 years old
must be within a normal weight range - ie have a BMI of 22 to 25
have no personal or family history of inherited illness or abnormalities
must be non-smokers
free of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C
in addition, their eggs must be of sufficient quality to give them and the recipient the best chance of conceiving

Egg sharing also benefits women who require donor eggs to conceive, for reasons including:

age
premature menopause
infertility as a result of cancer treatment
ovarian failure
risk of passing on hereditary diseases, eg cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy or fragile ‘X’ syndrome

What does treatment involve?

Following an initial consultation, treatment assessment, follow-up appointment, screening, matching and treatment planning appointment and possible counselling, a donor egg sharer will begin IVF or ICSI treatment as recommended by the clinical and scientific teams at MFS.

Go to information about IVF treatment

Go to information about ICSI treatment

Egg allocation

All donors are informed about how eggs are allocated before their IVF or ICSI treatment cycle begins:

if six intact eggs or more are collected, the donor shares her eggs with the recipient
if an even number of eggs is collected, both receive half
if an odd number is collected, the extra egg is given to the recipient
if the donor produces only one or two eggs, then she keeps them herself as there is a chance that they are of poor quality
if three, four or five eggs are collected, there are two options:
- the donor gives the recipient all the eggs and is then able to go through another cycle and keep all her eggs from the second attempt at no additional charge (other than the HFEA levy), OR
- the donor keeps all of the collected eggs

Matching

MFS matches, as closely as possible, the following characteristics of the donor and recipient:

ethnicity
skin tone
eye colour
hair colour
height
build

As far as possible MFS takes into account any preferences or restrictions a donor makes when matching a donor with a recipient.

Synchronising the recipient and donor

Once matched, the donor and recipient will be treated by different members of the clinical team. Both women begin their down regulation drugs around the same time. After two to three weeks the donor begins her fertility drugs to stimulate the development of egg follicles and the recipient begins HRT to help grow a suitable endometrium. The recipient then begins progesterone pessaries to prepare her uterus to receive the embryos. Following egg collection, fertilisation and embryo transfer, both the donor and recipient will know if they are pregnant within 14 days. A six week dating scan will follow two weeks after any positive pregnancy test.

Identity of egg sharers

Both the egg share donor and egg share recipient remain anonymous to each other, although the recipient may receive some non-identifying information about the donor, such as a description of her physical characteristics and personal interests.

Go to more information on donor identity and the law

What is included in the donor egg sharing treatment cost?

treatment planning
ultrasound monitoring scans
teaching how to give injections
egg collection
sperm preparation
standard IVF insemination or ICSI insemination of eggs
embryo transfer
embryo freezing and storage for first year (if suitable)
pregnancy test
six week dating scan and/or follow-up to review the treatment cycle

In addition, the recipient bears the cost of:

donor screening
standard package of donor drugs (NB the donor is the responsible for the cost of any drugs required in addition to the standard package)

What is not included in the donor egg sharing treatment cost?

initial consultation or follow-up consultation (as appropriate)
treatment assessment or repeat screening (as appropriate)
fee for freezing sperm (if required)
fee for donor sperm (if required)
any additional cost for drugs over and above the standard drugs package
either:
the HFEA levy for the creation in vitro, or transfer of, embryos, or
the HFEA levy for using donor sperm (if required)

How long does treatment take?

Screening a donor and matching a recipient usually takes up to four weeks, although in exceptional circumstances may take longer. Following this, egg sharing for donors takes an average of five to eight weeks from the beginning of the treatment cycle to pregnancy test, depending on the drug protocol.