Donor Egg

This is a fertility treatment for women who do not have eggs. A woman may have no eggs for a variety of reasons, for example:

• She has gone through an early menopause (before the age of 40)
• She has had her ovaries removed during surgery
• She has a very low egg number of poor quality eggs. This can be due to a genetic problem, previous surgery, an environmental cause and in some cases is unknown.
• She is over the age of 45 – a time when all women have very low egg numbers

An egg recipient is usually a woman who is in good health, in a stable relationship and under the age of fifty. Not all patients are eligible to enter the programme and each case is assessed on an individual basis by the doctor. In some circumstances cases will be referred to the clinics Ethics Committee for review.

Many women would like to donate eggs to help someone who cannot have children. Egg donors may be anonymous, and provided by the clinic, or someone known to you that you bring along to the clinic for assessment (a known donor).

Sometimes women who are undergoing IVF treatment can donate eggs as an egg share donor.  This means that during their IVF cycle they will give away half of the eggs collected during that cycle to an anonymous recipient couple.

Egg donors at our clinic you must:

• be aged 35 years or less
• have been a non-smoker for at least three months
• have a normal FSH and AMH hormone blood test
• be free of transmissible diseases and inheritable disorders
• be free from severe endometriosis
• never had had previous hyper-stimulation of the ovaries
• have a BMI (body mass index) below 33

All egg donors are required to undergo initial screening tests before they can be accepted onto the programme. Generally these tests include HIV, Hepatitis B & C, Syphilis, sickle cell screening. Everyone accepted on the programme will be required to discuss their own and their family’s medical history with the doctor.

Anonymous egg donors, provided by the clinic, are paid a small fee for providing eggs. If you bring along your own egg donor then the clinic does NOT make any payment to your egg donor. For women who are already going through IVF and are egg share donors, they receive a reduction in the cost of their IVF treatment.

• If six or more intact eggs are collected, the egg donor shares her eggs with the recipient. If an even number of eggs is collected, both receive half. If an odd number is collected the extra egg is kept by the egg donor.
• If the egg donor producers five or less eggs, splitting the number will not give either the donor or recipient a good chance of pregnancy, in which case there are two options:
  • The egg donor gives the recipient all the eggs and is then able to go through another cycle and keep all of her eggs from this second attempt at no additional charge
  • The egg donor keeps all of the collected eggs and has no additional charge

Trinidad & Tobago IVF & Fertility Centre makes every effort to ensure a good response from the egg donor, but cannot guarantee that the minimum number of eggs will be retrieved.

We will match as closely as possible the following characteristics of the donor and recipient:

• Ethnicity -    eye and hair colour
• Skin tone -    height and build

No, you will not be told the identity of the woman to whom you donate your eggs and you will also remain anonymous to her, although she will receive some non-identifying information about you, such as a description of your physical characteristics. If you wish, you may be informed whether your recipient achieved a pregnancy, but no further information can be supplied. You will not be the legal parent of any child born as a result of eggs you have donated to another woman.

We keep safely protected records on all people donating and receiving eggs. At all times these records will be kept confidential and anonymous. In the future should any child born as a result of egg sharing (either the donor or recipient’s child) ask for identifying information this will not be given, however we will be able to confirm or deny any potential genetic relationship to a partner.