The shortage of registered donors at the UK’s new national sperm bank has been much in the news recently. Without such a service, patients feel impelled to go either overseas or to unregistered, and potentially unsafe, providers. Egg donation is an altogether more complicated affair, but this field also has a very limited number of donors. With so few ‘anonymous’ egg donors in the UK, a woman usually needs to find her own donor or consider going abroad for treatment. At female gynaecologist Amanda Tozer’s London clinic, many women say they have a friend or relative willing to donate their eggs, but they are not sure if they are suitable or indeed what is involved.
Who can be an egg donor?
A suitable egg donor will be between 20 and 35 years old, fit and healthy and a normal weight for her height (with a BMI of between 19 and 30). She will have no family history of genetic disorders or inherited diseases, have no unexplained fertility issues – and is not trying to become pregnant at this time.
What questions do we need to ask?
During your consultation at Amanda Tozer’s London fertility clinic, you will discuss every aspect of your IVF treatment. Your donor will have questions of her own and these may include: will donating my eggs affect my own fertility? What conditions do you screen for? What are the risks? Will egg donation hurt? What is involved in egg collection? Are there any legal considerations? At what point is it too late to change my mind? Amanda Tozer has personally guided many couples and their egg donor through the treatment with care and compassion and encourages any concerns to be raised, any questions to be asked, taking as much stress out of the process as is possible.