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The Muasher Center
for Fertility and IVF
8501 Arlington Boulevard, Suite 500
Fairfax, Virginia 22031
Ph. 703.542.3610
Fx. 703.876.6317
The Donor Egg Program
Thank you for opening your heart to the possibility of becoming an egg donor. This is one of the most generous gifts one woman can give to another," the gift of life". Many women are unable to conceive a child using their own eggs. Most of them have learned this after undergoing numerous infertility treatments and many disappointments.
This is where you come in. Your generosity in donating your eggs gives new hope to these couples. When you donate your eggs, you show compassion for women who are unable to carry a child without the benefit of your gift.
If you are interested in becoming an egg donor and helping couples create a loving family, please browse through our site. If you would like to speak with someone before filling out the application form, or if you would like for us to mail it, please contact us at 703-876-6311. The following are frequent questions that women ask about donating their eggs. Feel free to call our Donor Egg Coordinator at anytime if you have any questions.
What are the reasons that women need my eggs?
Women need egg donors when their eggs are no longer viable due to various reasons including; age, premature menopause, and their genetic or family background.
What are the general requirements to be an egg donor?
All egg donors need to be healthy, non-smoking, woman between the ages of 21 and 32.
What is the compensation for being an egg donor?
Upon completion of the cycle, donors are reimbursed $6000 for their time and effort.
Will I be responsible for paying for my medical expenses?
No. Your recipient will pay all of your medical expenses for the cycle including medical testing, psychological screening, and medical insurance during your treatment cycle at The Muasher Center For Fertility and IVF.
What does egg donation involve?
We will notify you to begin taking medications to stimulate your ovaries. This is done by self administering FSH with a small subcutaneous (under the skin) needle. The injections are given in your lower abdomen and most donors say it feels like a "tiny pin prick." You will come to the center prior to the start of your menstrual cycle to receive instructions on how to give yourself the injections.
The stimulation phase will consist of coming to the office every 1-4 days over a 10-12 day period. These visits occur in the morning between 8:00AM to 9:30AM and involve a blood draw and an ultrasound to evaluate your response to the medications. We will call you in the afternoon each day to let you know how much medication to take. By adding more hormones to your body more eggs develop.
How do you retrieve my eggs?
You will undergo egg retrieval, which is an outpatient procedure, under light intravenous anesthesia. You will experience no discomfort or incisions during the procedure. A vaginal probe similar to that used for an ultrasound is placed into the vagina and fluid from your follicles is collected. The procedure takes approximately 20 minutes and requires 1-2 hours of recovery time. You are responsible for finding someone to drive you home after your procedure. You cannot drive on the day of egg retrieval.
Is it ok for me to continue taking birth control pills?
Yes, you may take birth control pills. However there will be a time during this process when you will not be able to take birth control pills.
Can I run out of eggs if I donate them to someone else?
No. Each month a woman ovulates one egg, however, multiple eggs are dissolved and absorbed in the process of selecting the one egg for ovulation. When you donate your eggs, we are simply "rescuing" the eggs that you would normally lose that month. You will have the same number of lifetime cycles after donating your eggs.
Do I meet the recipients that I donate my eggs to?
No. We keep everything Anonymous and Confidential. Frequently recipients write a note of thanks to the donor for her efforts and tremendous gift. All information exchanges are confidential and handled by the donor coordinator.
Will any children from my donation ever be able to find me?
While we can't promise that future laws won't change, currently the anonymity of the egg donor is protected. We go to extreme lengths to ensure your anonymity.
The Donor Egg Program Screening Process
Step 1: Complete the questionnaire and return.
The physician and Donor Egg Coordinator will review your questionnaire. They will exclude all donors whose personal history includes members with hereditary disorders that produce serious functional or cosmetic handicaps.
We also require that you have:
- 2 ovaries
- Age less than 33 years
- No evidence of current drug use (negative drug screen)
- No evidence of current sexually transmitted diseases (gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, herpes, HIV, types 1 & 2 by antigen test)
- No evidence of prior hepatitis
- No smoking
- No evidence that you carry the gene for certain diseases, which occur commonly Among members of particular ethnic backgrounds.
You will then receive a call from the Donor Egg team of your acceptance in the program. Your personal history and information will be kept on file until a match is found. At that time you will be scheduled for a consult with the doctor.
Step 2: Consultation with the Donor Egg Coordinator.
You will meet with the Donor Egg Coordinator on day 3 of your cycle to review your application, medical and genetic history. We will take a photo on this day to keep in your chart (recipients will NOT see this photo). We will also go over the donor IVF process as well as answer all questions you may have. We will then set you up for your next visit with the physician. This is typically within one week.
Step 3: Consultation with the Physician.
You will meet with the doctor and your history will again be reviewed, a physical exam, ultrasound and cervical cultures will be obtained along with infectious disease blood tests. The donation process will be explained in detail and any questions you have will be answered. You will be asked to consult with a psychologist.
Step 4: Consultation with a Psychologist.
You will undergo an evaluation by a psychologist to determine that you have a good understanding of the donor egg process and require anonymity. You will be given the telephone number for our psychologist to make an appointment convenient for you.
Lab work/ Done in at your Donor Egg Coordinator Consult in Step 2.
You will be asked to come for hormone tests early in the menstrual cycle. You will call us on the first day of your menstrual cycle and we will schedule you for blood work on the second, third or fourth day of you cycle. If you begin your period on the weekend, call us early Monday morning and we will schedule you appropriately. If all tests are within normal ranges, and you have completed the psychological exam we will begin the donor process.
Donor-Recipient Matching
We will provide a written summary of your characteristics as a donor including your age, height, weight, build, complexion, hair and eye color, blood type and Rh factor. We also will disclose the outcome of any prior pregnancies that you've had, your marital status and sexual orientation, as well as your medical and surgical conditions, educational and work history, and a summary of medical and genetic conditions that run in your family.
If the recipients accept you as their donor, we will tell you when to expect the donation to occur. This depends on where you and the recipient are in your menstrual cycles since we will need to synchronize them to permit a fresh transfer of embryos. In general, the donation will happen between 1-3 months after you have become a qualified donor. You may do up to 6 cycles.
Ovarian Stimulation
We will notify you to begin taking medications to stimulate your ovaries. This is done by self administering a medication called Lupron. The injections are given with a small needle in your lower abdomen. You will come to the center prior to the 21st day of your menstrual cycle to receive instructions on how to give yourself the injections. The recipient will purchase the medications for you and they will be given to you at this visit. Menstruation usually occurs 10-14 days after the start of Lupron, but may it may be delayed. Call us the day your period starts at which time we will determine the particular day that your stimulation will start. The recipient will be undergoing a similar sequence in order to synchronize with your cycle.
The stimulation phase will consist of you coming into the office every 1-4 days over a 10-12 day period. These visits occur in the morning between 8:00AM to 9:30AM and involve a blood draw and an ultrasound to evaluate your response to the medications. We will call you between 1:30PM to 3:30PM each day to let you know who much medication to take. This shot contains the natural hormone FSH and is the same hormone your body uses to cause eggs to grow. Simply by adding more hormones to your body more eggs develop.
The effects of these medications must be monitored carefully. This is accomplished by the blood testing and vaginal ultrasound examinations, which occur throughout the stimulation. The ultrasounds begin 4-5 days into the stimulation process and monitor the growth and number of follicles (egg-containing cysts) in the ovaries.
At the appropriate time, you will stop taking Lupron and the FSH-containing medications. You will receive instructions for your last shot, a medicine called Ovidrel.
This medicine caused the eggs to undergo the final steps in the maturation process and is critical for the success of the overall effort.
We will schedule you for egg retrieval 34 hours after the Ovidrel injection. Timing of the egg retrieval is very critical to the outcome and cannot be altered. You will arrive 30 minutes ahead of time. The egg retrieval itself is a minor surgical procedure that takes about 30 minutes to complete. It is performed at the center by Dr. Muasher. He uses an ultrasonically guided vaginal instrument while you are mildly sedated. We will have an Anesthesiologist here to sedate you. After the procedure, you will rest in our recovery room for about an hour. You will need someone to drive you home since you have had anesthesia. You may eat and drink once you go home. You will need to rest the entire day. Most patients return to work the next day. You will have menstrual like cramping and may have some mild vaginal bleeding. You will be given a prescription for pain medications. You will have to take it easy the week after retrieval. No exercising until your follow-up visit and ultrasound within the next week.
We request that you abstain from intercourse (or use condoms) during the whole month in which you are receiving treatment. This is to reduce the risk of transmitting newly acquired venereal diseases to the recipients and offspring. This will also ensure that you will not become pregnant during the treatment cycle. Should you become pregnant during this treatment cycle, you will be solely responsible for all costs related to this pregnancy.
We also request that you take a vitamin containing folic acid (0.4mg to 1mg) each day during this treatment.
Program Administration
Though the donation is anonymous, we will tell the recipient some things about you. This is important for two reasons. One, it enables the recipients to make an informed choice about your appropriateness to be an egg donor (from the recipient's perspective). Two, it serves as a record about the genetic background of the child which may be important in the future.
We will not tell you whether pregnancy occurred. Immature eggs are generally not used by the recipients, but are instead used to study ways to improve the IVF process. At the recipient's request, excess embryos may be cryopreserved (frozen) for future attempts of pregnancy by the recipient only.
Once you successfully complete an egg donation cycle you will be reimbursed $5000.00 for your time.
Medical insurance will be provided during the treatment cycle as a benefit to you. The program is issued by AIG Life Insurance Company. If you want more information about what is covered just let us know. You will be given the specifics of the policy once you begin the donation process. The program excludes costs related to psychological effects of egg donation, any pregnancy that might occur in the donor, and sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV).
Sometimes an illness may occur in the family later on, which would be important for the future health of you biological offspring. Should this occur, we would hope you would contact us so this information could be transmitted to the recipient of your eggs. We would serve as the mediator for the transfer of this information; your identity would remain anonymous. Similarly, if a child produced by your donation got an illness, which could affect you or your children's health, we expect the recipient to inform us, and we in turn would inform you.
Payment
Upon successful completion of an egg donation cycle, we will initiate the paperwork required to pay you the remainder of the $6,000 for your time and effort related to this donation process. If you pass initial screening and finish you three screening appts. (1 with the Donor Egg Coordinator, 2nd with the Physician, and 3rd with a psychologist) you will receive $50 for each of those appts. $150 will be paid after the 3rd appt and less from the $6000.00. Therefore, at retrieval you would receive $5850 as stated above. By law, we must report income to the IRS and you will receive a 1099 form at the end of the year. Should you continue to cycle again your compensation would then be $6000 at the end of the cycle. If it is not possible for you to complete the entire egg donation cycle (because of decisions either we or you make), you will be paid for the effort you made up to the point the cycle stopped at a rate of $50 a day from the start of FSH injections until the cycle is canceled.
Timeline
- Receipt of questionnaire: approximately 2 weeks
- Screening: Consultation, Psychological Evaluation, Day -3 labs: 1 month (depending on your cycle)
- Donor Match: 3-6 months, probably less
- Begin donor/ recipient synchronization: 1-2 months
- Donor Stimulation Process: 2 weeks
- Follow up visit 1 week after retrieval