Become an egg donor today for Barbados Fertility Centre

ralphhos
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It’s the generosity of women like you becoming an Egg donor who help make the dreams of becoming parents a reality for those struggling with infertility. If you would like to fill out the form to begin the process of donating eggs, please find the form here.

There are thousands of women at any given time that cannot become pregnant using their own eggs. Whether the reason is previous disease, chromosomal abnormalities, early menopause, premature ovarian failure, or simply poor egg quality, hopeful parents are often able to successfully become pregnant by using donated eggs from younger, more fertile women in the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Becoming an egg donor is a unique opportunity to assist others in fulfilling their dream of becoming parents. Many individuals and couples cannot become pregnant without the assistance of an egg donor. You may know someone who has struggled with infertility and felt hopeless. There are thousands of couples desperately searching for an egg donor like you who will give them that hope. Your generous donation of eggs will give someone who is experiencing infertility the opportunity to create a child of their own and experience the joy of parenthood. Giving the gift of life takes only a small amount of your time, but will provide the recipients a lifetime of happiness.

Our program is completely anonymous, the recipients do not see pictures of you. We send them your characteristics and they choose you based on this information only. The Donor/Recipient Coordinator will try to match you to an appropriate recipient based on these characteristics.

Once we match a recipient with a donor, all medical and psychological screening must be completed before the egg donation cycle begins. Medical screening generally consists of a series of blood tests, and a vaginal ultrasound. This screening is done to confirm that the Egg Donor is medically healthy and able to donate. Additionally a blood test is usually required on the second or third day of the Donor’s menses to assess hormonal levels.

Psychological Screening is conducted by a psychologist to ensure that the Egg Donor is aware of all the psychological implications of the egg donation process. This screening will help determine whether the Egg Donor is psychologically sound enough.

The Process:

· The Egg Donor will be put on medication to help regulate her menstrual cycle and to coordinate it with the recipient’s cycle.

· The Egg Donor will begin taking Buserelin (daily self-administered injections) to stop her ovaries from ovulating.

· After taking Buserelin for 11 days, the Egg Donor will then begin taking stimulation medication (self-administered injections), which will cause her egg follicles to grow. This medication is generally taken for 8-11 days.

· The Egg Donor will be monitored during this 8-11 day period (via blood tests and vaginal ultrasounds) to ensure that her follicles are growing at an expected rate and to monitor medication dosages. This monitoring will help the doctor determine what day the final HCG injection should be administered (see next step).

· When the follicles are determined to be “ready” for retrieval, the HCG injection is given, which prepares the Egg Donor’s ovaries to release the eggs. This injection is generally injected in the abdomen. The Coordinator will inform the Egg Donor of the exact time she should administer this injection. The timing of the HCG injection is crucial, so it is important that the Egg Donor take the injection exactly as instructed.

· The retrieval is scheduled for 36 hours after administration of the HCG injection.

· During the retrieval, the Egg Donor will usually be under light anaesthesia and the eggs are retrieved from the Egg Donor’s ovaries via a “vacuuming procedure:” a tiny needle is inserted through the vaginal wall into the ovaries and the eggs are vacuumed from each follicle. While under anaesthesia, the Egg Donor should not feel anything during this procedure. The entire procedure itself takes only 15-30 minutes.

· After the eggs have been retrieved, they are combined with the prospective father’s sperm in an attempt to fertilize as many eggs as possible.

· After the procedure, the Egg Donor will remain at the clinic for 1-2 hours to recover from the anaesthesia, after which she can return home. The Egg Donor will be expected to rest for the remainder of the day, as she may feel some bloating, cramping and other side effects the day of the retrieval. It is required that the Egg Donor arrange for a companion to drive her home after the retrieval.

· Egg Donors typically resume all normal activity the day after the retrieval procedure.

A testimony from one of our donors:

“Being an egg donor is something that I will take with me through the rest of my life. I am so thankful that I was given this opportunity to help couples realize their dream of bringing a life into this world. It is emotionally rewarding to be a part of this incredible journey.”

If you wish to consider being a donor please contact Dionne Holmes IVF Case Coordinator at the clinic on 246-435-7467 or fill out the online form here.

March 8, 2018

Barbados Fertility
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Q: What fertility issues are women encountering that created a need for an egg donor?

A: There are a lot of women, who for many reasons, their egg quality is not as it should be. Age is a major factor when it comes to egg quality so women when they reach their late thirties or early forties, their egg quality is decreasing so they are usually the ones who need egg donors. Another reason is that there are a lot of women who are menopausal, women who are young but are going through premature ovarian failure and who want to have children but can’t due to these problems.

Q: What does it take to become an egg donor and describe the process one must go through?

To be a donor, the woman must be under 34 years of age, their Body Mass Index ratio has to be within normal ranges and have normal regular periods. Ideally we would like a woman who has had a pregnancy previously or even completed her family but this is not an exclusion criteria. We will check your hormone levels to make sure that they are within normal ranges before adding you to the program.

Before we extract the eggs, we first ensure that the donor is a suitable match for the recipient. That process takes about three weeks, after which, we fly them to Barbados to have the eggs extracted. The donor needs to be in Barbados for eight to nine days.

Q: You mentioned that a low hormone level is a criteria to being an donor, but what about being pregnant, does being an egg donor mean that you would have had to give birth previously?

No you’re not required to have given birth or have children in order to be a donor because we have many donors who have come to us and they were never pregnant. Once your hormone levels are normal to give the best result we can take it from there.

Q: Describe the process of getting the eggs from the donor.

During the process, the donor is not put to sleep fully (i.e. like a general anaesthetic), but they are just put in a light sleeping state where they don’t feel any pain. The extraction takes about 15 minutes. The eggs are extracted from the vagina by using an ultrasound probe and a needle attached to the probe goes into the vagina walls, into the ovaries and into the follicles, which is then drained. There are no cuts or wounds on the stomach. In the fluid drained from the follicles are the eggs. The more follicles we produce for the donor the more eggs we get and the better the chances are for the recipient because not all eggs are fertilized and become embryos. There’s a growing process for the eggs so each day we give the recipient an update on the eggs and how the embryos are growing and when the transfer would be. Not all eggs grow after you fertilise them, some don’t make it to the stage that we need them to be at to do the transfer. Ideally we like to aim for 10 – 15 eggs from the donor.

Q: Can eggs from an egg donor be used for more than one recipient?

Yes, sometimes a sharing option is offered to recipients because it’s an expensive process. We do sharing cycles regularly where it’s the same process for the donor with the same amount of eggs but then the eggs are then divided evenly between two recipients to help reduce the cost. Basically they share the eggs and share the cost..

Q: What is a common misconception egg donors or persons interested in being a donor have?

Some people believe that once you’ve become an egg donor you have no more eggs, and that is so not true. A woman produces eggs every month within her cycle, approximately 1-2 million eggs and as you get older and times goes by those eggs will decrease in numbers but we have had donors donate and get pregnant afterwards so it’s a huge misconception.

Q: Do donors receive counselling?

Both recipient and donors are counseled. This is a very important step as there are psychological implications for both parties. Egg donors need to know that once they relinquished the eggs they cannot come back later and say ‘I want them back’. The recipients need to be counseled that this child will be biologically their child but not genetically theirs and the implications of this.

Q: Are donors paid or is it voluntary?

Egg donors are compensated for their time and effort for going to the appointments and taking treatment. If they are coming from Trinidad, all their travelling and accommodations are paid for by the recipient, they get US$750.00 and a daily stipend for meals while they are at the centre. We don’t pay per egg or for eggs but compensation is given for your time and for going through the actual process because it is a time consuming one for the donor.

Q: Would you say egg donating is considered ‘taboo’ in the Caribbean?

Yes and no, because there are a lot of persons open to it but it’s important to have a family or friend to support you when you’re doing it and that’s the hard part. Women will want to donate their eggs but if their partner does not agree or their mother doesn’t agree either, it would be hard on them to go through the process. It can be an emotional time for some donors from the hormones that they take and the can need that support system through the process.

Q: So how do I get started?

Just fill out our contact form here and our Donor Co-ordinator will contact you!

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