- 2601 Lake Dr, Ste 301, Raleigh, NC, United States, North Carolina
- info@carolinaconceptions.com
- (919) 782-5911
All donors in this database have been prescreened with the following physical requirements:
We have discontinued our password sneak peek weekends, since we do not charge a deposit to access the database. All patient who receive a quote can access the donor database website. The database allows you to review information about our available egg donors such as ethnicity, education level, interests and a photo. Click Here to access the database.
Please contact us for more details.
Egg donation is when a woman uses eggs from another woman to get pregnant through IVF. Egg donors take medication to stimulate the maturation of multiple eggs. The eggs (oocytes) are surgically retrieved from the donor and fertilized in our laboratory with sperm from the intended father or a sperm donor. The fertilized egg grows into an embryo.
The embryo is then transferred to the uterus of the intended mother, whose womb has been prepared using hormones to be ready for embryo implantation and pregnancy. Some intended mothers are not ideal candidates to carry a pregnancy and may use a gestational carrier, as will same-sex male couples.
Diminished ovarian reserve often happens naturally. Women are born with all the eggs they will ever have, and the number and quality of eggs decline naturally as they age.
Because of this, fertility declines dramatically at age 35 and continues to decrease with each passing year. By age 40, a woman’s ability to conceive naturally or through IVF with her own eggs diminishes substantially. But through IVF with donor eggs, the chances of a woman over 40 having a baby rise as much as 65%.
For example, a woman in her 40s with a low egg count or poor egg quality has about a 10% chance of having a baby when using her own eggs. That same woman has a 50-60% chance of having a baby when she uses eggs from an egg donor.
Low ovarian reserve also occurs when a woman has fewer eggs than expected for her age. In 90% of cases, the cause of diminished ovarian reserve remains unknown. However, congenital conditions present from birth, as well as medical and surgical causes, may be contributors.
Other conditions that can cause diminished ovarian reserve:
Sometimes, fertility specialists can find no clear explanation for ovarian failure.
We know this is a big decision. We want you to find the best match for your family, as the egg donor’s genetics will influence the traits and characteristics of the child born.
Patients can select a donor from our private egg donor database. They can view photos of potential donors, review their medical history, and get information about their physical traits, education and interests. Egg recipients can also read a little bit about how the donor views herself.
We conduct thorough screenings of our egg donors, who are healthy women between 19 and 32 years old. The egg donor will undergo genetic screening and infectious disease testing as required by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards. We will perform a physical exam and a psychological evaluation to confirm the donor understands all aspects of the egg donation process.
Patients can also choose a family member or friend to donate eggs. National egg donor banks are another option. In both cases, Carolina Conceptions Fertility can provide all IVF services.
The egg donation process is similar to standard IVF treatment, with the donor participating in the egg retrieval step and the intended mother in the embryo implantation step. The first step is testing.
If all testing results are sufficient, the egg donor recipients take a donor education class. We will review the treatment dates, medications and consent forms they will need to sign.
Fresh or frozen eggs can be used, depending on who the donor eggs come from and when. We most often use fresh eggs since these offer slightly higher live birth rates compared with frozen eggs. Carolina Conceptions Fertility can help patients find a fresh egg donor through our Egg Donor Database.
When we are ready to start the egg donation process, the egg donor recipient (intended mother) will take medication to suppress her ovaries and build up the lining of her uterus in preparation for receiving the implanted embryo. The donor will be treated with hormones to stimulate her ovaries and induce production of multiple eggs.
How many eggs does an egg donor typically produce? This varies based on the egg donor’s AMH. However, we do know that it takes very few eggs from an egg donor to yield a healthy embryo and lead to a pregnancy, based on the egg donor’s eggs being very young.
Once the eggs are ready (generally after 8-12 days), they will be retrieved and fertilized with the intended father’s sperm in the embryology lab. Five days later, a single embryo will be transferred into the intended mother’s uterus. Additional embryos can be frozen. Some patients opt to perform preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) on the remaining embryos, so we only implant chromosomally normal embryos in the future.
It usually takes 6 to 10 weeks from the time a donor is chosen by the recipient through embryo transfer. It may take longer depending on where each woman is in her menstrual cycle or if the intended parents have chosen to do PGT on their embryos.
We monitor the egg donor and recipient throughout the process and are in continual communication with the intended parents. We will notify them of how many eggs were harvested from the donor and how many embryos were created with the donor eggs.
Couples and individuals using donor eggs usually bear all costs for egg donation, including the medical expenses of the egg donor. Patients need to check with their insurance company to see if it covers these fertility treatments.
To begin the egg donation process, schedule a meeting with one of our infertility doctors to discuss the process. At this visit, we will issue recipients a unique password that will grant them access to our online donor profiles in the Egg Donor Database. The remainder of the egg donation treatment charges must be paid in full at the education class to initiate a cycle.
How much does it cost to use an egg donor? Charges for the cycle are the same whether using a donor from our database or a known donor who is a family member or friend, with the possible exception of donor compensation. The patient will decide on possible compensation for a family member or friend. We can help you work with your insurance company to determine if you have insurance coverage for egg donation. For questions about financial matters, please call and ask to speak to our financial coordinators at (919) 782-5911.
We do all we can to protect everyone involved in the egg donation process. Egg donor recipients can be assured they are considered the legal parent to any children resulting from IVF and egg donation. Every egg donor signs a contract that explicitly states that she has no legal rights or responsibilities to any children resulting from her donated eggs.
We also make every effort to protect the anonymity of both our donors and our egg recipients if that is their desire.
If you elect to participate in our anonymous egg donor program, this information will be held in confidence. The patient’s healthcare providers will know that she is an egg recipient. It will be up to the patient to decide with whom outside of this office they choose to share this information.
The egg donor’s identity is also protected. Recipients will be given basic information about the donor to aid in their decision process, but they will not be given any personal information that might compromise the donor’s anonymity.
An important note to consider: the anonymity of donors is more complicated now. Through DNA testing and ancestry registries, it is easier to find biological relatives and thus egg donors.
We require intended parents to meet once with a psychologist to discuss the complexities of third-party reproduction. For best psychological outcomes in children born from an egg donor, it is now the gold standard to disclose that they were born from an egg donor as early as age 4, in age-appropriate language. In addition, our psychologist can help guide patients toward support groups and resources such as children’s books that are geared toward helping facilitate these discussions, which are ongoing as a child grows into a young adult.
Read our blog for more information about infertility, IVF and more.
