Contact Us
020 7487 5050
Search for Donors
cart-icon cart-icon
020 7487 5050

FAQ

DONATING EGGS

Donating Eggs
Using Donor Eggs
Freeze and Share

Ask Us Anything About Donating Your Eggs

Find answers to the questions we’re asked about most often. If you don’t see your question here, contact us to find out more.

How many times will I need to visit the clinic?

You can expect a total of five or six visits to the clinic over a period of two or three months to complete the procedure of donating eggs.

How many times can I donate eggs?

According to UK regulations, an egg donor can help create up to 10 families. The decision to donate your eggs multiple times should be discussed between you and your consultant.

Will donating my eggs affect my future fertility?

Donating eggs is most unlikely to affect your fertility, or interfere with any future baby plans you may have.
Each month a woman naturally develops more than a thousand eggs but only one is ovulated – the rest dissolve and are absorbed by the body. The fertility medication you’ll receive to stimulate the ovaries will preserve a portion of these many eggs which would otherwise be absorbed.
As an egg donor, you’ll find out a lot more about your own fertility, which may be useful for your own future plans.
Egg donation is a form of fertility treatment in which a donor anonymously gives some of her eggs to an infertile patient in order to help her become a parent. Once donated, the eggs are fertilised with the recipient partner’s sperm (or with donor sperm) as in conventional IVF, and then transferred to the recipient’s womb for pregnancy. Egg donation, therefore, unlike adoption, means that the recipient is still able to experience pregnancy and has a strong biological link with the child.
Currently, there are not enough egg donors in Britain to help the number of infertile recipients who need treatment with donated eggs. This means that for many women, the only chance of conception is to go to overseas clinics for IVF with donor eggs. Egg donation schemes with overseas clinics do exist, but by becoming an egg donor here in Britain, you will be giving many infertile couples in the UK a chance at parenthood without the need for expensive treatment abroad, where regulations may differ. Women who volunteer as egg donors are therefore providing an extraordinary gift to others.

There are a number of reasons why women need egg donation, for example:
• They may have undergone treatment for cancer, such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, which can damage the eggs and ovaries.
• Some women have undergone repeated IVF treatment cycles where they have not responded to stimulation or they have produced poor quality eggs, which failed to fertilise, or produced embryos that fail to implant.
• They may have been born with a congenital condition, which means that they have either absent or underdeveloped ovaries.
• They may have gone through a premature menopause or have lost their fertility early.
• Some women are fertile and can produce eggs but are at risk of passing on a genetic condition to their child. Using donated eggs may be the only way that these women can have a fit and healthy baby.
• Some women have tried and failed for many years to start a family, sometimes without a known cause of their infertility.

In the UK, it is illegal to offer a donor money for their eggs. However, donors are entitled to receive a fixed compensation of £985 once they have completed their donation cycle. This is to ensure the donors are not left out of pocket, for expenses such as travel or loss of earnings. By offering the donors’ expense compensation, the program attracts people who are motivated by a desire to help others build families.
It depends entirely on which form of contraceptive you currently use.
If you are using the pill or the mini pill, you can take it right up to starting your treatment, which will roughly take 14 days. The nurse will instruct you when to stop taking your pill.
If you use the Mirena coil or a contraceptive implant, you’ll need to have this removed before your egg donation procedure starts.
If you use the copper coil (IUD) there is no need to remove it and you can start your egg donation process with it still in place.
If you take contraceptive injections, you’ll need to wait until you are due a new injection before starting the egg donation procedure.
You can resume your usual methods of contraception after completing your egg collection.
The main risk is that screening may reveal something about your own fertility or health which you were otherwise unaware of, for example, that you are a carrier of a genetic disease.
Egg donation is generally very safe with no long-term risks, but as with any medical procedure, there are always risks and possible side effects.
The most obvious risk is a possible allergy to the medication given during the stimulation phase. If you do have an allergic reaction to the medication, you will simply be stopped from the egg donation programme.
Possible medication side effects which donors may or may not experience include headaches, mood swings, bloating, nausea, and/or temporary stinging at the injection site.
Donors can expect to feel bloated during the immediate period before and after egg retrieval; the hormone medications cause the ovaries to swell and produce several eggs.
There is a low possible risk of ovarian over-stimulation during the stimulation phase which, if not noticed, could lead to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). Studies have shown that OHSS occurs in less than 3% (between 0.5% and 3%) of all IVF cycles.
To avoid OHSS during the stimulation stage, you’ll be closely monitored. If you show any signs of OHSS the doctor will either reduce your medication dose or halt your programme.
There are no clear answers as it depends on each individual. Based on our experience, egg donors do not usually complain of pain.
During the egg collection process itself, you will be sedated and will feel no pain. The process of egg collection only lasts 20-30 minutes. After the egg collection, you may have some mild abdominal cramps, but these are alleviated by taking everyday painkillers.
Yes, in the sense that your recipient will not be given identifying information about you and you will not know who your recipient is at the time.
However, since 2005 donor-conceived people can apply for the following identifying information about their egg donor once they reach the age of 18:
  • Full name (and any previous names)
  • Date of birth
  • Town or district of birth
  • Last known postal address (or address at the time of registration)
You have no legal responsibilities to any child created from your egg donation. The person who received it (and their partner if they have one) will be the child’s legal and social parent(s). You will not be named on the birth certificate and have no rights over how the child is brought up, nor will you have to contribute financially.
Knowing about their genetic heritage is important to many people. This is why you are asked to give information about your family and medical history and to write something about yourself that a donor-conceived person can read.
The decision to become an egg donor is always within your control, and you can change your mind at any time in the programme until the embryo is transferred.

Get Started

Please contact us for your free initial consultation







×
×
What is your height?
What is your weight?
×

Your Order Summary

Your cart is empty.

Our Terms and Conditions

Conditions of use:

London Egg Bank (LEB) is a registered company in London based at 112 Harley Street.

By reserving a donor at the LEB, you, the recipient of the donated eggs, confirm that you have:

  • attended a consultation with a fertility doctor at LEB or any registered fertility clinic which has a Third-Party Agreement with LEB and have a treatment plan at that clinic.

  • received verbal and written information about your treatment and had the opportunity to discuss the procedures involved in receiving eggs as part of your treatment with your treating clinic.

  • been informed that you have received all the relevant information pertaining to your treatment from your treating clinic, as required by the HFEA Code of Practice.

  • been offered counselling by your treating clinic regarding the implications of the treatment.

  • received a confirmation of the full cost of your treatment.

Ordering and purchasing donor eggs:

  • An order is considered completed when the recipient has completed and returned all required documentation and made payment.

  • LEB will confirm your order when they have received confirmation of your treatment cycle from your chosen clinic, as well as have received your signed consent forms and payment in full.

  • Frozen eggs provided by LEB should be used in treatment within 4 months of the date of dispatch from LEB. This is to ensure that your reserved pregnancy slot is not lost.

  • Please complete and sign the donor characteristics consent form within 5 days or your order will be cancelled, remember to check your junk/spam mail folder. If you have any queries regarding your donor acceptance paperwork, please call 0207 299 9547 between 08.30 – 17.30hrs and a member of staff will be happy to help you.

  • Donor eggs will only be reserved and dispatched after full payment of eggs and transportation if required (see the Refunds and Cancellation policy for further details).

General:

  • Donor Eggs (Eggs) provided by LEB may only be used for embryo creation at the laboratory of one of the registered clinics which has a TPA with LEB.

  • LEB provides Eggs to you for your exclusive personal use, and you confirm that you will only use them as such.

  • LEB Eggs provided to you may not be resold or distributed without LEB’s written permission.

  • All information relating to donors is kept confidential and disclosed only in the circumstances permitted by law. Information on donors comprises sensitive personal data for purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018. LEB will only provide relevant information about your selected donor to you for the purpose of allowing you to select an Egg donor, without breaching the donor’s confidentiality (Data Protection Act 2018) and the relevant requirements of the HFEA Act 1990.

  • LEB’s donor database usually has a large selection of available donors. However, donor availability may be limited at times. LEB provides donor eggs on a first come, first served basis.

  • It is important that you inform LEB of the treatment date that you have agreed with your clinic. The LEB must be informed of any changes to this date immediately.

  • This agreement does not override the terms of paragraph 4A of Schedule 3 to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (as amended) (‘HFEA Act’) which states that the Egg donor may withdraw or vary her consent from the use of her eggs in treatment at any time. This includes if an embryo has already been created using her Eggs. The variation to consent may occur up until the time of embryo transfer and may result in the discard of this embryo(s).

  • In some cases, there may be the possibility of adding extra eggs to the order from the same or a different donor. Please be aware that embryos created from different donors cannot be used in one treatment cycle.

Quality standards:

  • All donors available via the LEB donor database have been recruited and screened in compliance with donation criteria under the European Tissues and Cells Directive (EUTCD), Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) standards and professional guidance.

  • All frozen donor egg samples have been procured, tested, processed, preserved and stored in a manner consistent with EUTCD and HFEA requirements.

  • LEB does not take responsibility for eggs or embryos being accepted by any other external centres.

  • LEB eggs meet all required quality standards. However, LEB cannot guarantee that a pregnancy will be achieved using donor eggs or that any pregnancy or offspring derived as a result of using the egg donor will be free from genetic disorders/defects or infectious diseases. In particular:

    1. it is not feasible to test for ALL genetic markers or infectious diseases and in some cases, there are no available tests.

    2. donor testing is properly administered; however, even where the results return as normal, the tests have limitations and may not be entirely reliable; and

    3. LEB’s recruitment processes (including counselling) rely on the donor providing accurate and correct information about their genetic and general health history. We treat the information provided by the donor in good faith. LEB is not able to independently verify this information. However, to date we are not aware of any inaccurate information being provided by our donors.

Donor confidentiality:

  • Non-identifying information about each donor is displayed on the LEB donor database. LEB is unable to provide any further personal information on donors.

Refunds and cancellation policy:

  • Should you change your mind and wish to cancel your order for any reason, LEB will offer you a full refund within 5 working days of placing an order. 

  • Please note that the egg thaw survival rate and fertilisation rate provided on our patient information materials represent the averages of all patients per stated period of time and age group. We do not guarantee a minimum egg thaw survival or fertilisation rate per patient cycle. 

  • In the rare event that all the eggs (whether from one donor or a mix of two or more donors) do not survive the thawing process, LEB will offer you a new batch of eggs free of charge.

  • Once donor eggs are dispatched from our premises and delivered to a treatment centre not part of London Women’s
    Clinic / JD Healthcare Group, they are non-returnable and non-refundable.

Limitation of liability:

  • LEB shall not be liable for any special or consequential damages that result from the use of, or the inability to use, the materials on this site or the performance of the products, even if LEB has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Applicable law may not allow the limitation of exclusion of liability or incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you.

  • London Egg Bank cannot guarantee that additional eggs will be available at a later date for the purposes of treatment for a sibling pregnancy.

  • Donated eggs (fresh and/or frozen) are not quarantined prior to use. There is therefore a theoretical risk of transmission of infection through the transfer of embryos.