Egg donation starts with stimulating egg production to produce multiple eggs

When you become an egg donor at our California egg donation agency, you will begin by taking medications for stimulating egg production. The goal of egg donation is to safely grow  multiple eggs to give hopeful parents the best chance of having a healthy pregnancy and bringing a bundle of joy into the world. Our caring and knowledgeable staff members are here to explain what to expect from the ovarian stimulation process.

Understanding the basics of female fertility when stimulating egg production

Our California egg donation agency wants you to understand how your body works. By puberty, you have about 300,000 to 400,000 eggs in your body. However, you will only ovulate about 400 of these eggs in your lifetime. During an average cycle, about 10 to 20 eggs will start to grow and mature in your ovarian follicles. However, your body will normally only ovulate one of these eggs. The body reabsorbs the rest of the eggs and they disappear forever.

During the first step of the egg donation process, you will take the stimulating medications. These medications make the eggs in your ovaries grow and mature equally. These medications allow all the eggs for that month to grow, even those that would have been reabsorbed back into the body in a normal cycle. As a result, the egg donation process uses eggs that would be otherwise lost. This means egg donation does not affect your future fertility.

The fertility medication that your physician prescribes for stimulating egg production is like the hormones that your body naturally produces each month, so it is safe. In fact, doctors have used it for over 20 years to help women who do not ovulate regularly.

The process of ovarian stimulation

Our California egg donation agency and the fertility doctors we work with will hold your hand through every step of your donor journey. Your fertility specialist will give you detailed instructions on how to administer the injectable medication. You will begin taking it on a specific day of your cycle usually day 3 and will continue to do so for approximately 12 to 14 days.

During this time, you will attend six to 10 monitoring appointments. These are always in the early morning and take approximately 30-45 minutes. As a donor, every effort is made to make these appointments as convenient as possible. However, these appointments cannot be missed or rescheduled.

No two donors are the same, so monitoring appointments provide the information necessary to customize your ovarian stimulation protocol, adjust the dosage of your medication if needed and determine when the time is right for your egg retrieval. Your fertility specialist will monitor your progress using bloodwork and ultrasounds.

When most of your follicles (eggs) are mature, your physician tell you when to take a final injection. This shot will complete the maturation of your eggs. Approximately 35-36 hours later, you will visit your fertility doctor for the egg retrieval.

Contact us if you would like to learn more about becoming a donor with our California egg donation agency, or if you have questions about stimulating egg production.