Have you ever wondered what it would be like to help someone who can’t biologically have a child start a family of their own? Donating eggs is a great way to do this! Before you can donate your eggs, you will go through an extensive screening process before the actual donation.
This isn’t so much a side hustle as it is an enriching life experience that allows you to help someone start a family. You just happened to get compensated for your time! On average, you can expect to finish this process with approximately $10,000 as this covers your time, efforts, and travel that comes along with donating your eggs.
Not just anyone can walk into a clinic, donate their eggs and leave with $10,000 more dollars in their pocket. It is an extensive process that is reserved for those in good health and dedication to the process. Continue reading to learn how you can donate your eggs.
Step one: Complete the application and screening. Before this process can begin, you will fill out an in-depth application that asks you all about your health history. In this application, you will also include a photograph of yourself.
As long as your information meets the required criteria, you will be contacted by a team of professionals. At this time, you will meet with a psychologist, genetic counselor, and reproductive endocrinologist. You can expect to undergo disease testing, measurement of reproductive hormones, and cervical exams and cultures. You will be counseled by a reproductive endocrinologist about what the process would look like and what risks are possible if you were to be selected for egg donation.
Even if you are selected to go through testing, you may not be chosen to donate your eggs.
Step two: Wait for selection. If everything goes well and you are approved after health screenings, you will need to wait to be selected from patients within the practice who are seeking a donor. If you are selected by a patient, you will begin daily injectable medications that you can be taught how to administer at home.
Step three: Synchronize cycle. When the time comes, your cycle will be synchronized with the recipient’s by getting put on birth control. While on birth control, you will be given leuprolide, which is a synthetic hormone that will stop the normal function of your ovaries. Following this, you will take a follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) to encourage your body to release eggs. You will be provided a detailed calendar that will tell you when to take medications and when you should be coming into the office for blood tests and ultrasounds.
Step four: Donate your sample. For two weeks before the donation, you will go to seven to ten appointments where you will give blood samples and have an ultrasound to assess your progress.
After you’ve been monitored for two weeks, it’s time to donate your eggs! This is done vaginally while you are intravenously given a light sedative for pain management. Be sure to bring someone to drive you home after the appointment and schedule the next day off to rest up. After the donation, you will be compensated for your time and efforts.
Step five: Repeat the process. If you tolerate the process and feel like it went smoothly, you can donate up to six times in your lifetime. This is in accordance with The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).
Tips
This is something you can’t change about yourself, but if you have more “favorable” genetics, you may be compensated more for your egg donations.