Egg Donation in USA and Canada

Egg Donation in the USA/Canada(Process and Cost) FAQ

Our practice, Indian Egg Donors is the largest source of Indian Egg Donors in the USA and Canada. We have over 1,000 donors on our website, many of Asian Indian origin.

Most of our donors are Indians living in the USA or Canada. These may include Punjabi, Sikh, Bengali, Gujarati, South Indian, and other ethnic groups in India.

We provide both fresh and frozen oocytes to parents looking to have a baby using donor eggs.

Fresh donor cycles typically have a wait period of about three to six months to prepare the donor and donate eggs.

Frozen eggs are frequently available immediately or within ninety days from inventory at various IVF Centers in the USA /Canada.

2 Medical Tests and Investigation Results

Before starting the process of choosing a donor, you need to choose a fertility clinic in the USA or Canada and get checked to ensure you are medically ready to proceed down this overly exciting path. What this means on a practical level is that your most recent blood tests and pelvic ultrasound are not more than one year old. Your chosen fertility clinic will ask you to complete a Medical Information Questionnaire, providing the results of all your most recent tests.

If you need a recommendation on an IVF Clinic to use in the USA or in India, we can give you some excellent recommendations.

We can only ‘hold’ your donor for three months, so it is best to make sure you are ready to begin treatment as soon as your donor says, “I do”!

The clinic will require copies of your test results (no older than 12 months), so start collecting the results ASAP and forward them directly to the clinic. Unfortunately, the clinic will not start any treatment without receiving your results first. Although clinics do vary as to which results, they require, most of them will ask you to provide copies of the following tests:

Female Partner:

A: Blood tests:

1. HIV I & II antibodies
2. RPR/VDRL/TPHA (Syphilis)
3. Hepatitis B surface antigen
4. Hepatitis C antibodies
5. Rubella IgG (immunity)
6. Day 3 FSH
7. TSH
8. Prolactin

B: Transvaginal ultrasound scan of the pelvis

C: Other:

*HSG (hysterosalpingogram) or hysteroscopy or saline infusion sonogram
(* not compulsory but might be requested by your treating Doctor after reviewing your medical history and ultrasound scan result)

*Laparoscopy report if available
(* not compulsory but might be requested by your treating Doctor after reviewing your medical history)

Male Partner:

A: Blood tests:

1. HIV I & II antibodies
2. RPR/VDRL/TPHA (Syphilis)
3. Hepatitis B surface antigen
4. Hepatitis C antibodies

B: Semen analysis

Selecting your donor:

There are over 1,000 donors on the website. There is constant flow of donors coming, being placed and becoming unavailable every week. Most donors can donate up to six times. However, many are students and have study and exam schedules which are their top priority. They may only be available to donate during their vacation periods. When searching we recommend you prepare a list of your top five donors and send them to us at info@indianeggdonors.com.

Upon receipt, we will

1. Send you detailed four page profiles on the donor.
2. Let you know about their availability dates to help you finalize a donor.
3. Intended Parent Application Form
4. Registration Form
5. Credit Card payment form

Selection Tip:

There is a huge shortage of Indian donors in the USA and Canada. We receive about 15 inquiries daily for every donor we have available. If you see a donor you like contact us for the profiles and please reserve her immediately.

There are many people searching the donor data base daily and we assign donors on a “First Completed Forms Received Priority”. We repeatedly get disappointed phone calls from Intended Parents who saw a donor two weeks ago and are upset to find that she has been placed while they were thinking about their selection.

The next steps

The next step is for the donor to report to the IVF Center you have selected. On arrival the donor will show her driver license or passport to the IVF Center, who will match her idientity to the Profile Form you have received form us, to verify she is the donor you have selected.

The next step is for her on the same day to undergo a medical assessment in order to confirm her readiness to donate. In some IVF Centers, this is also followed by a Psychological assessemnt For more information about the psychological assessment please refer to Appendix D. It can take anywhere between 2-3 weeks to get an appointment, sometimes longer, depending on how busy your chosen clinic is.

The medical assessment needs to be done each time she donates, irrespective of whether it has been done before. Should the donor fail her medical or psychological assessment, or withdraw her participation in the donation prior to egg retrieval, we will replace the donor with another donor of your choice at no additional charge.

Once ok’ed by both the psychologist and the doctor (and the blood results come back ok – usually takes about a week for the blood results to come through), the clinic will make contact with you and discuss the next steps in the treatment plan for you and your donor. At this point, your chosen fertility clinic takes over the coordination, communication and control of your treatment plan, but we are here to support you all the way through the process!

So, the whole process takes between 8-10 weeks from the time you pick a donor until the donation happens, sometimes a little shorter or longer depending on how long it takes the donor to get through all the initial medical screening, and how ‘in sync’ your cycles are.

Frequently Asked Questions By Intended Parents:

I am sure you must have many questions you want to ask, and I am pretty sure someone who has walked this path before you has asked a similar question. After interacting with hundreds of other intended parents, I have put together a list of the questions that come up most often. If you have any others, please let me know so that I can update this list of FAQs.

Summary of the donation process

In terms of how the process works at the clinic, it will resemble something similar to this:

1. The clinic will require that you forward all your test results and medical history to them. This process can run simultaneously with the donor selection and screening process. However, the results need to be current (not older than 12 months)
2. The donors results will be available within 7 working days from her appointment date
3. As soon as this is received and we have all your completed documents and results we can plan your cycle. Your arrival can normally be 8 weeks or more from the donor’s first appointment.
4. The donor will be taking the oral contraceptive pill from day 1 of her period following her appointment. She must be on this for at least 1 month/more
5. If your cycles are regular we will use the most appropriate period date for you to start your medication to synchronize your cycle with that of the donor.
6. If your cycles are irregular we will advice that you also take the pill (if there are no contraindications) to regulate your period
7. Your medication: You will take a Leuprorelin depot injection (Lucrin) on day 1 of your period which should start between 2 and 6 weeks prior to your arrival date in India . This will suppress the release of FSH and LH in your system and therefore prevent follicles from growing and ovulation.
8. Two weeks prior to your arrival you will start with Estradiol tablets to thicken the lining of the womb.
9. The donor’s cycle will be planned so that she is on day 10 of her cycle when you have your first appointment . She starts her injections on day 3 of her cycle and will have scans on day 8, 10 and 12 with retrieval on day 14. This is the norm and depends on her response.
10. At your first appointment a lining scan will be done and you and your partner will have a consultation with the treating doctor and sign consent for the procedure.
11. If your lining is fine you will continue the same dosage of estradiol tablets.
12. The donor is normally ready for egg retrieval on her day 14 (your 5th day in India )
13. On this day your partner must provide a sample in the morning. You will also start with Progesterone injections on this day.
14. The day after the egg retrieval the lab will inform you about the fertilization and also tell you when transfer is expected.
15. Embryo transfer takes place 3-5 days after retrieval depending on the number of eggs retrieved, number that fertilized and quality and quantity of embryos on day 3.
16. We always plan for day 5 transfer and advice that patients can travel home 2 days after embryo transfer.
17. This constitutes a 12 day stay in India
18. Your pregnancy test is performed 10 days after embryo transfer and can be done at home.
19. If you are pregnant you will continue taking the estradiol tablets and progesterone injections for 6 more weeks and can then stop.

Appendix The donor’s psychological assessment and counselling

Although we pre-screen our egg donors as much as we are able to, we are not qualified to make a professional assessment of the donor’s eligibility to donate. This need to be done by a qualified professional. Each donor is required to have a medical and psychological assessment and counselling before being declared fit to donate. As with all people the donor's lives change and their mental and physical health also changes, hence the screening is done at the time of the match. The medical assessment needs to be repeated every time the donor donates and the psychological assessment once a year.

The purpose of the assessment is threefold:

1. The counselling aspect includes ensuring that the donor has thought through her offer to donate thoroughly and that she has the emotional capacity and social support to enter into a donation process.
2. Based on the above, the psychologist will make a determination that the donation will not be psychologically harmful to the donor – in other words – to ensure that the donor is psychologically healthy enough to donate
3. Lastly, the assessment includes gaining an accurate understanding of her and her family's mental health.

During this process a family history of mental illness/challenges may be identified. This information might not have been noted on the donor’s profile as she may not have been aware of the illness/challenge at the time of completing the agency information, or she may not have been able to provide all the relevant information with regards to the illness/challenge at the time of completing her application to be a donor.