Making the decision to become an egg donor, like all major life decisions, has its pros and cons. You will want to consider all the information, both positive and negative, so you can make the best decision for you. In this article, we will discuss both the pros and cons of being an egg donor so you will have the information you need.
Pros of Donating Eggs
Although there are many pros when you choose to donate your eggs, different things are important for different women. Each individual, based on her values, life experience, and other factors, will find that one or more of these reasons to donate resonates more than the others. Let’s take a look at some of the most common pros for becoming an egg donor.
Giving the Gift of a Baby Through Egg Donation / Helping Others
For someone who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to build a family, the gift of egg donation is priceless. For many women who are considering becoming donors, the consequence of this selfless act is one of the most compelling and rewarding reasons of all to donate. Not many women will be able to say they had a major role in helping someone else build their family.
Egg Donor Compensation
For the majority of women, financial gain is never the main driver behind their decision to donate. Even so, our egg donors are compensated quite generously. As an egg donor, you are not being compensated for your eggs, but for the significant time commitment and effort involved in donating them.
We are adamant that it’s crucial to work with an egg donation program that is open and honest about how they compensate their egg donors. For our first time egg donors, the compensation is up to $10,000. Compensation for proven donors starts at $12,000.
In addition, you never have to worry about out-of-pocket expenses, as we cover any additional costs, including your legal representation, medical and psychological screening, insurance and even the cost of travel and accommodation
For more information on egg donor compensation, please see our compensation page here.
Free Medical Screening and Genetic Counseling
Our egg donors undergo an extensive medical and genetic screening process that will assess the potential donor’s general health, as well as her fertility. This screening is important to make sure, as much as we possibly can, that the woman donating the eggs is medically capable of donation and that the eggs being donated will result in a healthy baby. The results are shared with you, giving you a unique insight into your health and fertility, that you may not otherwise have.
Opportunity to Travel with All Expenses Paid
When you become an egg donor, you will come to one of our amazing Pinnacle Fertility clinic locations for the egg retrieval procedure; Santa Monica Fertility – in either Santa Monica, California or Miami, Florida. We pay for your flights and your accommodations when you must travel for egg retrieval, so this is a wonderful opportunity to spend a few days by the beach in either location!
Ability to Have Children in the Future is Not Affected by Donating Eggs
Some potential donors may be concerned that donating their eggs will affect their ability to have children in the future. Because only eggs that would have been discarded with your menses that month are retrieved during the egg donation process, your fertility remains intact.
Benefits of Being an Egg Donor
As you can see, there are numerous benefits of becoming an egg donor. These benefits include:
- a way to make a real, tangible difference in the life of another person by giving them the ability to build a family
- receiving a generous compensation package for your time and effort
- free medical and genetic screening
- an all-expenses paid trip to either Santa Monica, California or Miami, Florida.
Cons of Donating Eggs
While there are many wonderful benefits of becoming an egg donor, as with every major decision, there are bound to be cons as well. We feel strongly that you need both sides of the picture before you make your decision, so let’s take a look at the possible downsides of donating your eggs.
Risks for Donating Eggs
While the risk for donating eggs is low, it does exist. All of our donors are carefully screened, and are young and healthy, which keeps the risk to a minimum. The main risk is an adverse reaction to the hormones used to stimulate the egg producing follicles and prepare the donor for egg retrieval.
Adverse reactions to these hormones can include bloating, mood swings, nausea, headaches and hot flashes. Although these side effects can be uncomfortable, most are temporary. For more information on the risks involved in egg donation see this page and also check out this information on how to deal with the side effects on egg donation medications here
Will I Regret Being an Egg Donor?
Most women who become egg donors are likely to ask themselves this question at least a few times during the process! But honestly, the answer is most likely, no. When egg donation is done for the right reason, meaning your main objective is to help someone else have a family who would not otherwise be able to do so, then egg donation is a rewarding and humbling experience.
Because our egg donor screening is so rigorous and includes a thorough psychological assessment to make sure you are 100% ready for this journey, as well as completely understanding what is involved, including the risks, it’s very unlikely that a woman who has successfully completed this screening will regret her decision to become a donor.
We are yet to have a donor who has expressed regret after the process, and an absolute majority of our donors come back to donate their eggs with us again, at least once more.
Being an Egg Donor Requires Time Commitment
As an egg donor, you need to be prepared for the time commitment involved. First of all, there will be appointments you will need to attend for screening, including a blood draw plus a vaginal ultrasound. Even though the process is step-by-step, the protocol may vary based on your individual circumstances and that of the recipient. You can learn more about the egg donation process here.
Once the cycle begins, then it will be approximately two weeks before the donor will need to begin coming to monitoring appointments, followed by the egg retrieval appointment. These last two weeks are when we require the most of our egg donors. These monitoring appointments are “can’t miss” appointments.
This part of the egg donation process is specifically tailored to the egg donor and we want it to be as comfortable and successful as possible, as we greatly value our donors and want them to have a great experience.
If an egg donor does not live near our clinic, then the monitoring is done locally for the first week and a half. After that, we fly the donor to Los Angeles (or Miami, depending on their location) to complete the monitoring and have the egg retrieval.
This means the donor would need to come to either Santa Monica or Miami for 9 days on average, necessitating that they need to be able to take that time off, either from school or work, or both, to accommodate this.
Facing Skepticism From Unsupportive Family or Friends
While many women are quite open about their egg donation journeys with their family and friends, others choose to keep this decision private. It is an individual choice that each woman will need to make for herself.
If you do decide to share, you need to be aware there may be people among your family or friends who may be unsupportive, so you will need to be prepared to deal with the inevitable questions or skepticism. If an egg donor is married, her spouse is part of the legal agreement and will need to consent to the egg donation process for his or her spouse
Is Being an Egg Donor Worth It?
The answer to the question of whether being an egg donor is worth it is one that only you can provide. The pros of becoming an egg donor are many, including helping someone welcome a child into their family who otherwise might not have had this opportunity. In addition, you are generously compensated for your time and effort and get to travel all expenses paid!
Yes, there are some risks involved but they are minimal, especially as we carefully screen all of our donors to make sure they are healthy and can undergo the procedure safely. There is a big time commitment and some women may experience unpleasant, temporary side effects from the hormones.
In making your decision to become an egg donor, you need to take all of the information into account, the positives as well as potential drawbacks. No two egg donor journeys are identical, so you need to make your own decision about whether being an egg donor is worth it for you or not.
Should I Become an Egg Donor?
Although no one can make this decision for you, great things always begin with a great conversation! We have the answers and the experience to guide and support you in your decision, so please contact us online or call us directly at 424-385-0100 if you have any questions at all.
If you are ready to apply, please complete this short egg donor application online here.
For more information we invite you to explore our website, where we have lots of useful details such as our ‘become an egg donor’ page, as well as our egg donation FAQ.
We would be delighted to assist you in your egg donation journey!
