Travel & Appointment Requirements
Please review the travel and appointment requirements below. If you do not feel that you can meet these requirements, it is best for all parties involved for you to not participate in the egg donor program.
Screening Process
The first step in the process to become an egg donor will be for you to return the donor medical history form(PDF | 149Kb), picture(s) and medical release forms so we can obtain your records from your OB/GYN and/or your primary care physician. Please fill out the release forms for any Dr. you have seen in the last 5 years. We will use your medical records and your egg donor history form to evaluate whether or not you are eligible to be an egg donor, based on FDA guidelines and our protocols.
The first appointment is with our infertility counselor, who will also ask you questions about your lifestyle, background and your decision to be an egg donor. You will also need to answer questions on a psychological screening test, called an MMPI. We send your answers to these questions to a licensed psychologist, who determines if you have any psychological issues that would prevent you from being an egg donor. This appointment will take approximately 1 1/2 hours and can only be scheduled in our Grand Rapids office. It will take us approximately 7 business days to obtain results of the MMPI before we can move on to the next step.
If we determine you can proceed, the next appointment will be with the donor coordinator nurse. The nurse will review the process of being an egg donor, the medications required, appointments needed once you are matched and the egg retrieval process. The nurse will also ask you questions about your lifestyle and risk factors for communicable diseases (similar to the questions you are asked when you donate blood). This is an FDA requirement. This will take approximately 1 hour and will be scheduled in our Grand Rapids location only.
Once you have completed the two appointments above, we will begin to present your anonymous donor history profile and childhood pictures to the recipients on our waiting list. We will not schedule the last appointment in the screening process until we have a “tentative match” with a recipient for you. This is due to the expensive lab testing needed for the FDA requirements. We want to ensure that we have a recipient interested in you as a donor before completing the medical screening and having the lab testing done. A nurse will call you once we have found a match with a recipient and the final appointment will be scheduled.
The final appointment is with one of our physicians. He will review your medical history and perform a physical. He will do a pelvic exam and cervical cultures for Chlamydia and gonorrhea. This appointment will take approximately 30-45 minutes and can be scheduled in our Grand Rapids office only. We will also draw blood for the FDA screening.
The screening process is done on your own time and expense. We do not reimburse you for missed work, gas expenses, etc. We cover all laboratory expenses, regardless of the results. The donor reimbursement is given once you have completed the egg retrieval procedure and we have obtained at least 4 mature eggs. Our current reimbursement for egg donors is $3,000.
Matched Donation Cycle and Procedure (4-6 appointments)
When you come in for the final screening appointment with the physician, the donor coordinator nurse will discuss the timing of the donation with you. She will give you the first medication and instruct you when to begin and what to do next.
You will need to call the nurse with the start of your menses. If you are taking birth control pills, you will be able to continue them for the first cycle of the two month process of donating your eggs. Three weeks later, you will start the first medication, Lupron. Approximately 7-14 days after starting Lupron, you will have another period. A screening Ultrasound will need to be done within the first 3-4 days of this period. We will give you further instructions on when to begin the fertility medications at this appointment.
You will be required to have 4-5 Ultrasound/blood testing appointments once fertility medications are started. These can be done at either of our offices. These appointments require you to be at our office between 7:30am-10:00am. Your work/school schedule should be flexible enough to allow you to miss or go in late, 4-5 times within a two-week period for these appointments.
The day of your egg retrieval procedure you will need to be at our Grand Rapids office for approx. 2-2 1/2 hours. You will need someone with you for the ENTIRE time and to drive you home. You will not be able to work or go to school this day due to the pain medications we give you.
We like all donors to have a post-op appointment with a physician to ensure that you are healing properly and answer any questions. This is scheduled with the Dr. for about 2 weeks after the egg retrieval. If you live farther away, this can be a phone post-op call to review how you are doing instead.