What is the compensation?
Egg donors are compensated $12,000 for their time and effort and receive a free medical screening.
What is the time commitment for donation?
Once the screening process and testing is complete (usually 4 – 6 weeks), your egg donation cycle can be completed in about four weeks. During the first two weeks, you will need to make daily early morning visits to Weill Cornell Medicine for blood tests and ultrasounds. These visits usually last less than 20 minutes and are scheduled between 7:00 and 8:30 AM. At a certain time (usually 7 to 12 days after you start injections), your eggs will be ready to be retrieved. On the day of the retrieval, you must cancel your usual activities — work, school and social activities — so that you can have the procedure and then rest and recover afterwards. After the egg retrieval, you will not need to take medications or come in daily, but you may still feel bloated or uncomfortable for up to 2 more weeks.
What type of screening is needed?
You will be asked to complete a personal and medical history questionnaire. Once your questionnaire has been approved we will call you to arrange a day and time for your screening appointments. The screening consists of a discussion and physical examination with a physician, a consultation with our psychologist and genetic counselor, and laboratory tests.
What side effects can I expect and what risks are involved?
The daily blood sampling and hormone injections are usually well tolerated. However, some women can experience local discomfort, redness, or minor bruising at the injection site. The hormone medications can cause side effects including breast tenderness, fluid retention, a bloated feeling, moodiness, and tenderness in the ovaries. These can take up to two weeks after the retrieval to subside.
There are risks to the procedure that are rare and include hyperstimulation syndrome, ovarian torsion (twisting), infection, and bleeding. These risks will be discussed in detail during the initial consultation with the physician.
Our psychological counseling professionals are available at any time during and after the cycle to offer emotional support.
Who are the recipients of the eggs? Will I meet them?
The recipient intended parents are people who are extremely motivated to build a family and many have faced struggles either with infertility or access to assisted reproductive technology services for many years. There are several reasons why an intended parent would need donated eggs. These reasons may include women with premature ovarian failure, loss of ovarian function due to cancer or due to the treatment for cancer, or the production of poor quality eggs, and intended parents who require the assistance of both an egg donor and a gestational surrogate.
Weill Cornell Medicine's egg donation program is private and donor profiles and informaiton is not published. Donors are "anonymous" at the time of donation, but may be asked to be open to sharing their medical information and being available in the future to update any genetic testing. Information about the donor is shared with the recipients in a non-identifying manner; childhood photos may be shared, but not retained. Privacy is mutually respected; the donor will not know identifying details about the intended parent recipients.
Donors may do a cycle to freeze eggs for Cornell's in-house eggbank. Eggs may be frozen and matched with recipients in the future.
How many times can I donate?
According to the most recent guidelines published by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) women can donate up to 6 times.