FAQ's by Intended Parents: USA/Canada

A: The short answer is: Around $16,000 in total for regular donors around $22,000 for preferred donors.

Regular donors are about 90% of the donors in our database.

Preferred donors are donors with extraordinary education or talents. These would include, Beauty Pageant Models, Outstanding Athletes, Physicians, Dentists, IVY League Students (Harvard, Cornell, Princeton) and PhDs.

A: Indian Egg Donors works with the top fertility clinics and doctors in India and we will assist you to choose a clinic and doctor that is best suited for you.

A: We will ask you to complete a short info sheet so that we have your details; the clinic will ask you to complete a full medical questionnaire with all your most recent test results.

A: That is one of the best things about our donor program – We have many donors available immediately! The wait is only as long as it takes for you to find a donor who meets all your requirements. If you are a six foot tall, Physician from Punjab and you are looking for someone exactly like you, who is your twin sister, you will have to wait a while. For anyone else, there should be one of the over 1,000 immediately available donors who should fit your profile.

A: Unlike some other donor programs, future parents are able to view full information about prospective donors, including personality and character information, family history going back two generations, education history, medical information, etc. as well as photos of the donor as a child.

A: That is an impossible thing to predict as each donor will respond individually to the stimulation protocol, and even the same donor might respond differently each time she donates. What we can tell you is that most USA fertility clinics follow FDA best practice and do a low, gentle stim on the donors in order to ensure that an optimum number of excellent quality eggs are retrieved (rather than many poor eggs) and more importantly, so that the health and wellbeing of the donor is never compromised. The average number of eggs retrieved is 12-14.

A. Yes, in the USA and Canada. Intended parents frequently like to have either a boy or a girl child, depending upon their individual preferences. Let the IVF Centre in the USA or Canada know your choice prior to the embryos being prepared. The IVF Centre and Embryologist will take it into consideration on selecting the sperm to use to fertilize the eggs.
B. Many IVF Centres in the USA do have an extra charge for sex selection.
C. No in India. Sex selection is illegal in India.

A: Usually about 4 to 6 embryos are prepared. One or Two (depending on your preference.)

A: They will be frozen using the latest/best freezing technique.

A: We will ask you to complete a short info sheet so that we have your details; the clinic will ask you to complete a full medical questionnaire with all your most recent test results.

A: That is one of the best things about our donor program – We have many donors available immediately! The wait is only as long as it takes for you to find a donor who meets all your requirements. If you are a six foot tall, Physician from Punjab and you are looking for someone exactly like you, who is your twin sister, you will have to wait a while. For anyone else, there should be one of the over 500 immediately available donors who should fit your profile.

A: Unlike some other donor programs, future parents are able to view full information about prospective donors, including personality and character information, family history going back two generations, education history, medical information, etc. as well as photos of the donor as a child.

A: That is an impossible thing to predict as each donor will respond individually to the stimulation protocol, and even the same donor might respond differently each time she donates. What we can tell you is that most Indian fertility clinics follow best practices and do a low, gentle stim on the donors in order to ensure that an optimum number of excellent quality eggs are retrieved (rather than many poor eggs) and more importantly, so that the health and wellbeing of the donor is never compromised. The average number of eggs retrieved is 12-14.

A: D. Yes, in the USA and Canada. Intended parents frequently like to have either a boy or a girl child, depending upon their individual preferences. Let the IVF Centre in the USA or Canada know your choice prior to the embryos being prepared. The IVF Centre and Embryologist will take it into consideration on selecting the sperm to use to fertilize the eggs.
E. Many IVF Centres in the USA do have an extra charge for sex selection.
F. No in India. Sex selection is illegal in India.

A:Usually about 4 to 6 embryos are prepared. One or Two (depending on your preference.)

A: They will be frozen using the latest/best freezing technique.

A: In your initial discussion with the doctor and fertility sister, you will let them know when you would like to do the IVF cycle. They will then confirm those dates with the donor, and then they will work out a treatment plan based on your chosen dates. In summary, it involves working back from your preferred dates to see when the donor should stop the pill, when her first injections start etc.

A: Depends on the donor. They donate for a variety of reasons, some for money, but mostly it is around giving back something to other people. You know how you get some people who volunteer, who recycle, who seem to genuinely care about their fellow human beings? That is the type of donor we have on our database. Genuinely amazing people.

To illustrate this point, check out this email we just got from donor ‘C’: “Thanx, would it be possible to rather have the money (if chosen) donated to a charity as I’m not after this for the money?”

A: Donors are thoroughly pre-screened by the IVF Center they are sent to. Once selected, the donor will undergo a psychological assessment and a medical assessment. The psychological assessment has three main purposes: (1) that the donor is fully aware of what is involved in donating in her eggs and that she understands all the implications and risks involved, (2) that she is mentally healthy to donate and (3) that there are no known psychological disorders that would disqualify her from donating.

The medical assessment must be repeated each time the donor donates to ensure that the results are current. This involves blood tests which includes (but is not limited to) testing for infectious diseases including HIV I and II antibodies, RPR (Syphilis). Hepatitis B surface antigen, Hepatitis C antibodies and CMV (Cytomegalovirus) IgM. In addition, the donor will have a pelvic ultrasound to ensure that her ovaries are in an optimum state to donate.

A: While some of the information can be verified, we rely on the donor’s integrity to be honest. Because there is limited financial incentive to donate, there is also no incentive for the donors to lie about any of their information. Unless someone has a penchant for having needles jabbed in them, suffering PMS-like hormone swings, bloating and undergoing a fairly invasive medical procedure, it is highly unlikely that anyone would want to lie their way onto an egg donor program

A: We provide the donor’s details and your details to the fertility clinic. The doctor will specifically check that the donor who is matched with you is the same donor you have chosen

A: Our contracts stipulates that egg donation should be anonymous, unless it is a known donor (friend or family member). This means that no contact is allowed between donor and recipient.

A: Short answer: Up to 70% of the time it does work, first time. But obviously it doesn’t work first time, every time. You might need to come back to do a FET, or to try again. We hope you are one of the lucky 70% for who it works the first time.

However, even with the best success rate in the world, no procedure has a 100% success rate. This means for some, the procedure doesn’t work the first time. You might want to consider having a backup plan if you are part of the unlucky few for whom the procedure isn’t successful on the first attempt.

What we have found is a great backup option is for the male partner to give a second sample of sperm to freeze at the clinic. This means that if a second trip to the IVF Center required, only the female partner needs to travel to and stay for a much shorter time as the frozen sperm will be available on the day of egg retrieval. This means less time away from home and less travel costs. Speak to your doctor about the option of keeping a second sample of frozen sperm at the clinic should a second attempt be required.

In most cases, storing the extra frozen embryo is an adequate backup plan.

For even more questions, answers and information relating to egg donation please refer to our website