If you are thinking of using an egg donor in your journey to parenthood, you probably have many questions! Our Donor Eggs FAQs offer answers to many common questions that intended parents often ask.
Looking for an Egg Donor FAQs
The length of time required to obtain frozen donor eggs can vary from about 2-3 weeks to 2 months. Much of this depends on your clinic, but usually your eggs will be shipped in less than a month.
All our donors undergo a full screening which includes independent psychological evaluations along with independent genetic counseling to discuss family history more in-depth outside of the initial interviews and medical consultation. Additionally, they undergo the required FDA testing (gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV, Hep B, Hep C, & RPR + physical exam & risk factor assessment). Any donor who is not considered a good candidate for egg donation, including from the initial intake team, physician, psychologist, and/or genetic counselor, is not approved to move forward. Information provided by the donor is discussed with each of the listed above. If there are any discrepancies throughout their journey, they are immediately withdrawn. We must assume best intent from the women who are willing to donate their eggs. They have a full understanding of the importance of reporting information factually.
Yes, we ask donors whether they have been vaccinated for COVID. However, we do not collect details on the vaccine type or date. Vaccination status is neither a requirement nor a disqualifier for donation, and we do not verify any details beyond a yes/no response.
No, we do not test donors for HFE. This testing is not recommended by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) or our partner genetic counselors, and it is not a standard practice among major egg banks.
AMH testing is used to help measure ovarian reserve (remaining egg supply). We have criteria for our donors that takes into account their AMH level and donors are monitored throughout the donation cycle. AMH is only one component of many that our medical team considers when cycling a donor. In addition, some ethnicities regularly have lower AMH levels than others of the same age. With that said, all donors are required to have an AMH of 2 or higher to qualify for our program. Please note, because we are not physicians, we cannot provide any medical information that is not noted in the donor profile. Please discuss AMH significance with your provider.
There is no medical significance to blood type in egg donation. It would only be a consideration if you do not intend to disclose the use of an Egg donor wherein blood type could be brought into question.
Our donors go through a rigorous screening process, that includes medical screening, at the time they enter our program. The donors also meet with a third-party genetic counselor and a psychologist. These professionals are trained to review the donor’s family history in depth and determine if they are approved as good candidates for egg donation. Unfortunately, verifying things such as education is not something we currently perform, and this is self-reported by the donor.
Prospective parents can access a complete egg donor profile to select a donor with specifics of ethnicity, physical characteristics — like height, skin, hair, and eye color – educational background, and personality traits. We also encourage prospective parents to prioritize their own wellness; epigenetics research has shown that the health and environment of the uterus that will be carrying the baby can also influence the child’s growth and development.
Please check with your clinic directly for any age restriction policies they may have.
At Pinnacle Egg Bank, we stand behind the quality of our donor eggs with a blastocyst guarantee on every paid cohort. This ensures intended parents have the best chance of a successful outcome, backed by our expertise and commitment to excellence. Contact us to learn more about how our guarantee supports your journey.
We see approximately 1 blastocyst per every 3 eggs.
This means a positive pregnancy resulted from the use of their eggs. That is the extent of the details provided on the past cycles due to the various intended parent factors and privacy. There is no additional fee for these donors. You can find donor status in the donor’s profile.
Some donors can have increased cycle costs due to a variety of factors such as compensation, travel expenses, recruiting efforts, or a combination of these. Rest assured, this has no implication the quality of the donor as all donors meet or exceed the same criteria to donate.
We accept all major credit cards with no transaction fees. Our paperwork includes three credit card authorizations, and we can provide additional forms if needed. Other payment options include wire transfers and ACH.
Financing is available through the following lenders. They often have financing specials and can typically provide approvals within an hour.
Yes, we are contracted with Progyny, Maven, Gaia, and WIN Fertility, which provide comprehensive coverage for a variety of fertility treatments, including egg freezing, fertility preservation, and other services. These insurance partners help reduce out-of-pocket expenses and make treatment more accessible by covering a wide range of fertility-related care. For more details on how your specific plan applies, we recommend checking with your insurance provider or reaching out to our team for personalized assistance.
We can provide an itemized receipt upon request for most packages. However, we do not have a CPT code that can be used for the purchase of donor egg material. We are not a medical entity and therefore not able to provide medical services or procedure codes.
We have a flat-rate shipping cost of $950 with our trusted vendor, who ensures safe transport of the fragile material. Shipping fee includes up to $25,000 liability insurance on the shipping tank. You can increase the liability insurance to $50,000 for an additional $550.
Pinnacles IVF laboratory has rigorous checks in place to ensure the donor eggs frozen and shipped are from the donor you selected. This starts with a second person witnessing all steps of the laboratory process and a 3- step two-person shipping process to ensure the eggs selected are the ones shipped. This constant and consistent witness process combined with the team only handling and preparing one shipment at a time ensures that the eggs our intended parents select are the ones that will be received by their clinic.
Using an attorney is not necessary. The donor has been fully consented and relinquished all rights to the eggs she has donated and there is no formal legal agreement for frozen eggs. All rights for intended parents are outlined in the Terms of Use document. You are always welcome to have this reviewed by an attorney to ensure you understand what you are signing but please know that this is a well vetted document and we do not accept any changes to it.
Our attorneys ensure that any agreements are carefully drafted to comply with both state and federal laws. They also ensure that there is no confusion or misinterpretation regarding the rights, responsibilities, or intent of all parties involved. Both donors and intended parents will sign agreements that clearly define the expectations of the process.
Yes, absolutely. Even if you use an egg donor, you are the baby’s legal and intended parent. Legally, intended parents who use donor eggs are recognized as the child’s parents, and additional legal steps (like proper consents and agreements) help ensure this is clearly established.
Most natural twins are the result of two independent embryos implanting in the uterus, a result of the mother ovulating two eggs. Similarly, with IVF, twins are typically seen when two embryos are transferred to the uterus. Identical twins are relatively rare in nature and IVF, occurring approximately 0.5 to 2.5% of the time respectively. Since egg donation is associated with the highest pregnancy rate per embryo transferred, it follows that the chance of twins with donor eggs is equally elevated when two donor egg embryos are transferred – occurring approximately 50% of the time.
Almost all egg donations are done anonymously. In these cases, the donor does not have any information about the recipient. Recipients have access to medical history and photos of the donor to aid in the selection process. In directed donations, both parties have access to more information.
According to current laws, donors do not retain rights to eggs or resulting embryos after donation.
Becoming an Egg Donor FAQs
If you are thinking of donating eggs, you probably have many questions! Our Egg Donation FAQs offer answers to many common questions that potential egg donors often ask.
The basic qualifications to become a Pinnacle egg donor are:
- Age 21-29
- Good general health
- BMI < 30(not medically obese)
- Nosexually transmitted diseases within the last 12 months
- Non-smoker
- Family history without significant health or hereditary issues
While these are our basic egg donor qualifications, there are certain circumstances that might disqualify an otherwise healthy egg donor. At Pinnacle Egg Bank we consider each application on a case-by-case basis so if you think egg donation is right for you, please contact us or call our office at 424-385-0100. We would love to answer any questions that you may have about your eligibility.
At Pinnacle Egg Bank our egg donation program is anonymous. We take every possible precaution to ensure our donors’ anonymity. We do not publish any possibly identifying information publicly, not even your first name. That being said, with social media and ancestry testing, it may be possible for offspring to find an egg donor. Our donors are provided a consent and sign an agreement, detailing how they are protected. Once an egg donor conceived child turns 18, they can request the donor’s identifying information from our clinic. If this happens, we will contact the egg donor and the donor can decide at that time if she would like contact with the child.
Our attorneys ensure that any agreements are carefully drafted to comply with both state and federal laws. They also ensure that there is no confusion or misinterpretation regarding the rights, responsibilities, or intent of all parties involved. Both donors and intended parents will sign agreements that clearly define the expectations of the process.
In the United States, egg donation can be anonymous, and most intended parents and donors choose this and will never meet. The confidentiality will always be upheld by the egg donation agency and medical clinic. In anonymous egg donation, recipients will have access to medical information and photos as necessary to select a donor, but not any personal information that would help them identify or locate the egg donor. The donor will not have any information about the intended parents.
While donors do undergo their own genetic testing as part of our extensive screening process, it is important to have knowledge of the health and medical history of your biological siblings, parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents so that we are providing our genetic counselors, healthcare providers and intended parents with the most complete and accurate information possible.
Egg donation does not affect an egg donor’s ovarian reserve since the retrieved eggs would have been discarded by the donor’s body with the next menstruation.
Egg donation is a process that requires time commitment. You will need to meet with us for an initial screening and consultation followed by completing the remainder of the screening process, online or via phone call, which can take 6-8 weeks. Once cleared, you must commit to 3 or 4 in-person visits per week for approximately 2 weeks while you undergo fertility injections. On the day of your egg retrieval, you will also need to take the day off from school or work. While the process is rewarding, the number of appointments you will be required to attend might feel like having a second job for a short while!
Nicotine, tobacco, and illegal drugs all impact your health by introducing toxins into your body. These chemicals can also impact your egg reserve, ovulation, and overall fertility. Because we want our egg donors to be as healthy as possible, we choose to work with non-smokers who do not have a history of illegal drug use. Most intended parents also prefer to work with egg donors who do not smoke or use drugs.
Yes, you may qualify to be an egg donor if you have herpes. You must be STI-free for at least 12 months prior to donating eggs. Sexually transmitted infections impact your reproductive system, so it is important that all infections are properly managed before you begin this journey. However, we understand that there are a wide range of STIs and a variety of symptoms that people experience. If you have a treatable STI and are still interested in donating eggs, once you receive treatment and have been STI free for 12 months, our team will work with you to begin the process. Unfortunately, we cannot accept donors with certain incurable STIs like HIV.
Unfortunately, no. Most women need a BMI under 30 in order to donate eggs. Being at a healthy weight is one of the factors that intended parents will screen for when selecting egg donors. While a woman’s BMI is just one aspect of her overall health, it is an important consideration during fertility treatments. Obesity can affect your hormones (particularly estrogen) and make the donation process more complicated. Obesity can also impact how your body metabolizes fertility drugs and can make our medications less effective. If you are obese and would still like to donate your eggs, a doctor can help you lose weight in a healthy way so you can meet egg donor qualifications in the future.
We generally only consider women between the ages of 21 and 29 to be eligible egg donors. This is because a woman’s egg reserve diminishes as she ages. While many women believe they are fertile right until menopause, it actually becomes more challenging to get pregnant with each passing year. This is not only because women lose eggs as they get older, but also because the quality of the remaining eggs declines over time. Limiting egg donation to women under the age of 30 gives us a better chance of retrieving eggs that are viable.
We understand that filling out the donation application takes time and effort and that it is disappointing when your application is denied. As frustrating as it may be to not know the specific reason, we do this to ensure that applicants don’t alter their answers when they reapply or apply elsewhere.
During ovulation, a woman will ovulate one egg. Prior to this, however, there are other egg follicles that die off and are discarded. Taking fertility hormone shots encourages the eggs that would normally die to grow, and these are the eggs that we retrieve, before your body has a chance to discard them. This number varies from donor to donor and even from one donation cycle to the next.
Periods return to their pre-donation pattern within 2-6 weeks following the egg donation process.
There is no known association between egg donation and infertility. We have seen several of our egg donors complete multiple cycles, take a break to have their own families, and come back to cycle again.
While there is a genetic link between you and the child, you are the donor, and the baby will not be legally yours. Donors are not considered legal parents or guardians and have no parental obligations or rights to any offspring conceived through their donation(s).
Each egg donor’s experience will vary. However, our egg donors generally do not report any major pain during the process of donating eggs. Donors tend to report symptoms that mimic the symptoms of an intense menstrual cycle, such as cramping and bloating. Some egg donors report minor changes in mood; sometimes feeling more elevated and other times experiencing some irritability. After the retrieval, some cramping and bloating is not uncommon.
The health and wellbeing of our egg donors is our top priority. We have our donors rest for two to three months between egg donation cycles. This rest period helps ensure a comfortable egg donation experience for repeat egg donors.
Pinnacle Egg Bank follows ASRM guidelines which delineate that an individual can complete 6 egg donation cycles.
On average, an egg donation cycle lasts about six to eight weeks from start to finish. A donor will be on a birth control pill during the initial period of two to six weeks while her assigned fertility nurse creates the cycle calendar. Once the two weeks of injections start, a donor will need to come in several times a week for a blood draw and a transvaginal ultrasound so that we can evaluate hormone levels and monitor follicle growth. These appointments are mandatory to help ensure that the cycle is as safe and effective as possible. You will also need to take at least one day off of work or school for the retrieval.
Egg donors are not paid for their eggs, rather they are compensated for their time and effort. Pinnacle Egg Bank has competitive compensation packages, which your intake coordinator will review with you after you apply. You are compensated on the day of your egg retrieval procedure and may qualify for an increase in compensation with subsequent donations. Please keep in mind that egg donor compensation is considered taxable income.