Egg Donor Application
What it is and why it is necessary
Once you have made the big and generous decision to donate some of your own eggs to another woman whose eggs are unsuitable for conceiving a baby, you will first go through an egg donor application process. This is both for your health and safety, and for the sake of the egg donation recipient who chooses you to help her become a mom.
Egg donation is completely anonymous, but it is still very specific, with one mom-to-be choosing one donor to help her by donating a few eggs. This means that egg donors do not make egg donations in general, to be ‘stored’ until needed by someone.
Instead, what happens is that women who are willing to donate eggs first complete a donor application process, through which they can then be chosen by a prospective egg recipient.
The donor application process has two components – a medical assessment and a personal profile. We will look at each of these components in more detail shortly.
At Cape Fertility, the egg donor application has also been refined to achieve two objectives.
The first is to provide enough medical information through the medical questionnaire to determine if a donor is suitable to make a donation. It is similar to the medical declaration you sign before donating blood, but for the purpose of egg donation.
The second objective is to enable a prospective egg recipient to choose a donor through a personal profile that provides enough information to make a choice, but without revealing the donor’s identity, which must – by law – remain anonymous.
The egg donor application process is complete when a prospective recipient chooses a donor using the anonymous personal profile. Only once you are selected as a donor in this way, will the actual donation process commence.
Let’s start at the beginning of the egg donation journey: applying to become an egg donor.
Egg donor application – medical suitability
As we noted, the donor application process has two components – a medical assessment and a personal profile. Let’s first look at the medical component.
While there are so many kind and generous women who are willing to donate eggs, not every woman is physically or medically fit or suited for egg donation.
To ensure that egg donation recipients have every possible chance of conceiving with an egg donation, these donations are only accepted from healthy young women who are most likely to have young and healthy eggs.
The medical criteria for becoming an egg donor are:
* Egg donors must be between 21 and 32 years of age – this is because both the quality and quantity of a woman’s eggs deteriorates with age.
* One of the ways in which a donor’s state of health can be determined is through the BMI – or body mass index. BMI is a measure of whether you’re a healthy weight for your height. Egg donors need to have an optimal BMI, which is between 18.5 and 24.9 to donate their eggs.
* The mental health of egg donors is also important, and for this reason, egg donors undergo a psychological assessment before donating.
* A few other lifestyle factors that disqualify women from becoming egg donors include smoking, alcohol use and drug abuse.
Completing this first step is as simple as filling in your contact details here, or contacting our Egg Donor Fairy God Mother, Linda, on 072 698 7919 or linda@capefertility.co.za. Your information is 100% confidential and will under no circumstances be made available to anybody else.
Linda will gladly answer your questions and guide you further in the egg donor application process, including helping you to complete a confidential medical questionnaire to ascertain your suitability as an egg donor.
If your medical questionnaire confirms your suitability to donate eggs, Linda will assist you in taking the next step.
Egg donor application – personal profile
As we noted, the donor application process has a second component – a personal profile.
Prospective egg donation recipients, when ready to find an egg donor to complete their fertility treatment, will go through the personal profiles of potential donors to select one donor for an egg donation.
When choosing a donor, some egg donation recipients may look at physical characteristics that match their own, for example, hair colour or eye colour. Others may look for similar lifestyle choices and interests, when they choose a donor.
Linda will assist you in completing your egg donor profile. Please remember that it is completely anonymous and confidential. Your privacy and anonymity are guaranteed at Cape Fertility.
Your donor profile contains general details about your physical characteristics, medical background, education and hobbies, as well as childhood photos. However, it never shows names, personal details or adult photos – to ensure your donation remains anonymous. These profiles are also only ever seen by potential recipients.
Your profile is added to Cape Fertility’s world-class and secure database of egg donors from which moms-to-be can select their match.
Since there are fewer egg donors than couples who need eggs to achieve their dream of becoming pregnant, you have a very good chance of being selected to donate soon, if not immediately.
Cape Fertility Clinic facilitates more egg donor matches than any other clinic in South Africa. We have many local and international recipients every month who require an egg donor.
What happens after a successful donor application process
Once you have been selected by a donor, you will be required to attend a 2-hour appointment to see one of our fertility specialists and our psychologist. The full egg donation procedure will be explained to you and you will have an opportunity to ask any questions you may have and to discuss any concerns. During your appointment, you will also have a detailed medical examination, including routine investigations and a psychological assessment.
The next step is to complete an egg donation cycle. During your egg donation cycle, you will be cared for by a specialist medical team of fertility specialists, qualified nursing sisters, a resident psychologist and our dedicated egg donor co-ordinator, who have been caring for egg donors’ emotional and medical needs for many years and have safely completed thousands of treatments.
Your Egg Donor Application
As a potential egg donor, it is extremely important that you donate at a world-class medical facility, dedicated to your care and medical safety.
Cape Fertility Clinic has been leading the way in egg donation since 1993 and for the last 26 years we have worked with thousands of egg donors in a friendly, relaxed and caring environment at our advanced, purpose-built facilities in the beautiful city of Cape Town.
If you have made the big and generous decision to donate some of your own eggs to another woman, all you have to do is simply fill in your contact details here, or contact our Egg Donor Fairy God Mother, Linda, on 072 698 7919 or linda@capefertility.co.za. Your information is 100% confidential and will under no circumstances be made available to anybody else.
Linda will answer your questions and guide you through every step in the egg donor application process and continue to support you throughout your entire egg donation process, as well as after your egg donation is completed.