Oocyte Donation

With oocyte donation, any woman with a healthy uterus, regardless of the condition of her own oocytes, can potentially bear a child fathered by her partner.

With this procedure, the oocyte donor may be anonymous and obtained through a donor egg agency, or, if desired, the donor can be a young sister or other female relative with similar genetic makeup. The oocytes (eggs) are removed from the donor and fertilized with sperm in the laboratory, then transferred to the recipient. The procedure can be undertaken at virtually any time, up to age 50, because the rate limiting issue is the age of the oocyte donor.

Many women may benefit from this technology, including those who have ovarian failure caused by genetic or unknown reasons, surgical removal of their ovaries, or cancer treatment. Oocyte donation is also an option for women who are carriers of genetic diseases and wish to prevent the risk of either conceiving a child affected with the disease or who might be a carrier of a genetic disease.

Oocyte donation is proven, well-established technology with which there is considerable expertise. Many thousands of healthy children have been born to infertile patients over the last 20 years through this technique.