Egg Donation: Requirements and Procedure

Egg donation is a formal, confidential and altruistic process, although the law allows to compensate the inconvenience with an amount between 850 and 1.000 ¤, of Assisted Reproduction by which a woman donates her eggs so that another woman can conceive a child.

Requirements to be an egg donor

There are a number of general requirements for a woman to be an egg donor:

  • Be between 18 and 35 years old
  • Be in good physical and psychological health
  • Have full capacity to carry out daily activities
  • Give her written consent

The candidate’s condition will be analyzed by means of a study protocol of her physical and psychological characteristics, her clinical conditions and analytical data to demonstrate as far as possible that she does not suffer from any genetic, hereditary or infectious disease transmissible to the offspring.

So, first of all, a personalized and confidential interview will be made to the candidate, a gynecological examination with cytology and ultrasound will be made and finally a complete general analysis will be made, including:

  • Blood group and RH
  • Hemogram (analysis of the number of cells in a given amount of blood).
  • Biochemistry
  • Hormone analysis
  • Hepatitis, HIV and syphilis serologies.
  • Genetic evaluation
  • Psychological evaluation

What does egg donation consist of?

The procedure begins with the stimulation of the ovaries to develop several follicles (oocytes), where the eggs are found. To do this, the candidate must take specific drugs and undergo regular monitoring with vaginal ultrasound scans that provide information on the number and size of the developing oocytes.

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The doses and patterns of administration of the medications depend on the clinical characteristics of each donor and the response to them can be variable. If the development obtained is adequate, the candidate will take other medications to achieve the final maturation of the eggs.

Once the eggs have matured, the specialist extracts them by puncture of the ovaries and aspiration of the follicles, vaginally and under ultrasound vision. This procedure is performed on an outpatient basis (without hospital admission), although it requires anesthesia and subsequent observation for a variable period depending on the case.