Following guidance from industry regulators, HFEA, the compensation available for egg donors will increase from 1st October, 2024.
Imagine giving the gift of parenthood. For the 1 in 6 couples in the UK affected by infertility, donating your eggs can be life-changing.
For many individuals, couples and co-parents, the only hope of having a child and is to use eggs donated by someone like you.
Many donors feel a sense of pride, knowing the joy they have brought to people who could not otherwise become parents.
With a national shortage of healthy donor eggs and an increasing demand, your donation is needed now more than ever.
The decision to donate can be life-changing for not only you, but the people who receive your donated eggs, any children that are born as a result, and for your own family if you choose to have one. It's important you consider this before moving forward.
Start your egg donation journey
Help someone's dreams of parenthood become a reality. We pride ourselves on making the donation process as straightforward and discreet as it can be. Simply fill in your details and find out if you're able to donate with us.
You can be an egg donor from the age of 21, up until your 36th birthday.
To be a suitable donor, you must meet the following criteria:
Age 21 - 35
Have a BMI between 18 to 35 - calculate your BMI
Be a non-smoker for at least six months, including vapes
Be free from serious illnesses or infections that could be passed to the birth parent or baby
Able to share your full medical history and that of your immediate relatives
Willing to have a fertility assessment and genetic screening
These criteria ensure that it is safe for you to donate, and that your eggs are healthy.
In certain cases, we accept eggs from older donors, such as for known recipients.
Fill out our application form online, answering a few questions about your health. We’ll follow up with a medical questionnaire to assess eligibility.
You’ll come to your nearest TFP Fertility clinic for a fertility assessment which will look at your ovarian reserve and antral follicle count. A fertility specialist will use these results and your medical history to decide if you’re a suitable egg donor.
We’ll arrange for you to meet with a specialist counsellor to discuss the implications of becoming an egg donor. If you have a partner, then you both must attend.
Before you can donate, you’ll need to have some blood tests for donor screening. These tests include full sexual health screening, karotype, cystic fibrosis and CMV.
One of our nurses will walk you through the treatment you will have to donate your eggs. This includes the medication you will need and how to use it.
On the first day of your next period, you’ll call us to arrange for some monitoring scans. You’ll also begin a course of stimulation hormones to mature the eggs in your ovaries.
We’ll monitor you carefully with scans and blood tests to plan when the egg collection procedure will take place. On the day, you’ll need to:
Fast for a few hours before the procedure which will be carried out at our clinic
Be sedated for a short time while we collect your eggs
You’ll be able to return home on the same day as the procedure. Most women experience some abdominal discomfort following the procedure. You’ll need a friend or family member to escort you home afterwards.
We witness the incredible impact of egg donation firsthand. For many of our donors, knowing they have helped someone create the family they have longed for is reward enough but we've found some other ways to compensate our donors for their generous gift.
From those struggling with infertility to LGBTQ+ families, your donation can offer hope to those who thought they'd never become a parent.
Following your donation, your eggs will be frozen and stored until they are matched to a hopeful recipient.
Donated eggs can be used to create a maximum of 10 families, with no limits on the number of children born within each family. You can set a limit for this, if you wish.
Of course, it's natural to wonder about the outcome of your donation. You can contact your fertility clinic or the HFEA directly to ask for information on:
How many births have occurred as a result of your donation
The age, sex and year of birth for the children born
You won’t be given any information that could reveal the identity of the child/children.
In the UK, egg donation is not completely anonymous, but there are protections for your identity in place:
At the time of donation, your identity is private
The person receiving your eggs cannot access your identity at any point, but they will be told your height, eye colour and occupation (e.g., teacher, sales manager, etc.,)
Any children resulting from your donation can ask for non-identifying information about you when they turn 16, such as your height, eye colour and occupation (e.g., teacher, sales manager, etc.,)
Any children resulting from your donation can ask for your identity when they turn 18, which includes your name, date of birth, and last known address
Unless you are donating your eggs as a known donor (someone who donates their eggs or sperm to a friend or family member), you won’t be given any information about who receives your eggs at any point.
This is to protect the identity of the person receiving your eggs and any children born as a result.
The only way you’ll find out the identity of any child born as a result of your egg donation is if they contact you after they turn 18.
You can make an information request to the HFEA to find out if any children have been born as a result of your donation.
You'll be told how many children have been born as well as their sex and year of birth
You can only find out about births, not pregnancies
You’ll need to wait until enough time has passed, which is usually around one year after your donation.
When donating your eggs to a licensed fertility clinic, you have no legal obligations to any child born as a result.
We are a HFEA-regulated clinic and follow strict protocols and regulations to ensure the safety of our donors and future recipients.
This means:
You’re not the legal parent of any child born from your egg donation
You’re not named on their birth certificate
You have no financial obligations to the child or recipient
You have no parental rights over how the child is raised
By law, when you donate you must consent in writing to your eggs being used for treatment. You can change or withdraw your consent up until the point any of your eggs are transferred to a recipient. That means you can change or withdraw your consent after your eggs have been donated. However, given that fertility treatment is costly, time-consuming and emotionally and physically stressful, it is important to be sure beforehand that you really want to donate.
Under no circumstances should your identity be legally disclosed to the recipient of your eggs.
It is possible that you can be connected to any children born from your eggs through DNA ancestry websites, such as ancestry.com.
You don’t need to have done a DNA test yourself for this to happen, as a connection can be discovered if someone else in your family uses the service.
You won’t be able to contact any children born from your egg donation.
However, when they turn 18, they’ll be able to request your name, date of birth and last known address.
They may or may not contact you, depending on their personal preferences.
There is currently no official legal restriction on how many times you can donate.
However, your clinic will limit the number of conditions for your safety, as it’s a medical procedure.
If the first donation cycle goes well, you can usually donate a further two times.
You will have a review and a consultation with one of our fertility specialists after each donation to advise on whether you can continue to donate your eggs.
In the UK, it’s illegal to pay for an egg donor for their donation, however, you can be compensated for your expenses, including travel and accommodation during your donation cycle.
From 1st October, 2024, HFEA guidelines state that clinics may compensate egg donors with a fixed sum of up to £985 per cycle of donation, though sometimes this can be increased if you can show through receipts that your expenses were higher.