Egg Donation Process & Timeline
We believe contributing to someone’s growing family through egg donation is one of the most meaningful and impactful decisions you can make.
When you become an egg donor with Everie, you can trust you will be working with a skilled team of experts with decades-worth of experience in egg donation. When you donate with Everie, you can trust that your decision is valued and appreciated, as shown through our commitment to listening to and honoring your decisions, our advocacy for you at every step in the process, and our equitable compensation.
Part of our commitment to you is ensuring you are informed and knowledgeable about what this decision truly entails.
2. Meet our team through the screening process and learn about the different types of egg donation available
3. Choose between a fresh or frozen egg donation cycle
4. Request an egg donation type: Known, Semi-Known, or ID Release
5. Follow protocol for donation cycle and retrieval
6. Receive compensation
7. Feel amazing about your choice to help grow a family
The egg donation process with Everie looks like this:
How To Become an Egg Donor
The Beginning Stages
Below we’ll walk you through the egg donation process in more detail, answering questions such as: What is the egg donation process like? How does an egg retrieval work? Does egg donation hurt?
Once you have decided that becoming an egg donor is the path you want to take, you will research and apply to become a donor at an agency that best suits you.
With an egg donor program like Everie, you will choose which cycle type you wish to do — fresh or frozen — and which type of donation, or amount of personal information shared, you want.
Depending on the cycle type you choose, you will then begin the preparatory work after your application and medical screens are complete, or you will begin it after you are chosen by recipient parents.
The Medical Process
During this step, you will prep your body for the egg retrieval by self administering at-home hormonal injections beginning on the second day of your next menstrual cycle. These injections will stimulate your ovaries with follicle-stimulating hormones (FSH). FSH will stimulate more follicle growth to produce more than one mature egg ready for egg retrieval.
Most women will administer these injections at home for about 10 to 13 days. Over the course of this phase, you will have regular doctor’s appointments — about 5 to 6 — so your team can monitor your FSH levels and ensure your dosage and growth look good.
How Much Do Follicles Grow Per Day?
During a typical menstrual cycle the follicles are found to be of these sizes usually:
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Day 1-5: multiple small follicles can be seen, size 6-8mm.
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Day 6-7: at least one dominant follicle is seen around 10mm in size.
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Day 8-12: the dominant follicle grows (2-3mm each day) reaching around 20mm by 11-12th day
The Egg Retrieval
Once your physician sees your eggs have matured, you will receive an injection of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), sometimes called the '"trigger shot" because it triggers ovulation. hCG prepares the ovaries to release the eggs.
When Is Egg Retrieval After the Trigger Shot?
The egg retrieval procedure takes place approximately 36 hours after the hCG injection. It must be carefully timed before your body naturally releases the eggs produced.
Is Egg Donation Painful?
Egg donation will not be painful because you will be sedated for the quick 20-minute egg retrieval procedure. During the retrieval, an ultrasound probe is inserted into your vagina to identify follicles. A thin needle with suction capabilities is then inserted into the vagina and guided by ultrasound to go into the follicles to retrieve the eggs. If your ovaries aren't accessible through transvaginal ultrasound, an abdominal ultrasound may be used to guide the needle.
Your recovery, which might last one day to one week, might mimic your period symptoms: mild bloating, vaginal soreness, mild cramping, and/or light spotting. Most women report these symptoms go away shortly after the retrieval.
The Immeasurable Gift
We can provide you with all of this information, guaranteeing you are informed and educated at each turn, however we cannot wholly explain just how invaluable your donation truly is.
You are giving your time, your energy, and a piece of yourself to help another family grow. The egg donation process, all in all, is much smaller than the magnitude of the impact it will make on someone else’s life.
Matching With Recipient Parents: time varies
Medical Screening & Contracts: 1-2 months depending on donation type
Medications & Egg Retrieval: Approximately 2 weeks
Recovery: A few days to a week
A Short Time To Make a Long-Lasting Impact
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The egg donation process typically takes about 3 months for frozen donations and 4-6 months for fresh.
Many women have questions about the length of the medical processes — How long will I be injecting myself? When will my eggs actually be retrieved? How long does that procedure take? — but the timeline is more than just the hormone injections and retrieval itself. (But if you’re looking for answers to those questions specifically, you’ll find them in our medical process!).
We’ll go over what you can expect from the moment you decide to make this generous contribution until the moment you are compensated upon completion!
Egg Donation Timeline: What Is a Normal Cycle Length?
Recovery: A few days to a week
We cannot predict exactly how long it will take you to recover from the egg retrieval procedure since everyone is different.
Some symptoms that you might experience after the egg retrieval are bloating, vaginal soreness, mild cramping, or light spotting. Many egg donors equate their post-retrieval symptoms to those during their monthly period. Any discomfort should improve if not by the next day then within the following few days.Your doctor will advise you which over-the-counter medications to take for any pain should you need it.
Medications & Egg Retrieval: Approximately 2 weeks
10-13 days of injections:
On the second day of your next menstrual cycle, you will begin with the at-home ovarian stimulation injections.
You will go into the physician’s office about 5-6 times over the course of these two weeks for monitoring.
5-10 days for your retrieval:
You will be required to travel to your recipient parents IVF clinic for the egg retrieval; the length of this trip will vary, and we tell donors to plan for anywhere between 5-10 days total
Your actual retrieval will only last about 20 minutes! When your eggs have fully matured, you’ll be ready for the short procedure.
Medical Screening & Contracts: Approximately 2-3 months
Medical screening takes about 2-3 months for a fresh egg donation.
The contracts will depend on the type of donation made. Unlike the frozen egg donation cycle, however, the specifics of the contractual agreement are decided on before the medical screening begins.
Matching With Recipient Parents: time varies
Since every egg donation is different, the time to match with recipient parents will vary.
We always advise our donors to regularly update their online profile while waiting to be matched with recipient parents. This includes everything from updating their medical information to adding more pictures to their profiles or simply more information about themselves.
When recipient parents select you as a possible match, you will have the opportunity to say yes or not to matching.
Fresh Donation Timeline
The Application Process & Pre-Screening: 4-6 weeks
Application Process
Fill out our application.
Everie will review your application and either move you to Phase 2 of the Application process or reach out for clarification, paperwork, and/or more information.
If approved, you will begin Phase 2, which will ask for more detailed information about you, your health and your blood-related family, such as a current and historical report of you and your family’s medical and mental health, more about your personality traits, hobbies, talents, goals, an introductory video, and pictures of yourself.
Your fully completed Application will be submitted for review by our donor intake team, who uses predefined guidance from our genetic and medical directors.
Pre-Screening
If eligible, an Everie team member will contact you to set up a 20-30 minute phone call to get to know you better; we’ll go over your application, chat about what brought you to egg donation, discuss the different types of egg donation available, let you know what you can expect moving forward, and answer your questions!
We will make sure you understand the powerful impact of your choice to donate eggs, how we’ll act as your advocates, be here as your advisors, and offer support any way we can.
You will complete some preliminary blood work (AMH, genetic carrier testing) and we'll perform background checks.
Then, we will prepare you for the matching phase!