Becoming an Egg Donor: The Circle Egg Donation Process

The first step in becoming an egg donor is to fill out our egg donor application. You'll be asked to register with your name and email, and you'll be emailed a link to the application. It's easy to fill out and you can do it right from your phone.

You'll be asked to provide information about yourself, medical history, and the types of families you are willing to help. Once your application is complete and you seem like a good egg donor candidate, our Egg Donor Coordinator will reach out to you.

We start the matching process when an intended parent expresses interest in working with you. Matching at Circle Egg Donation is a reciprocal process. We believe that intended parents should choose their egg donors and egg donors should decide whom they want to help.

We’ll send you a redacted profile of any intended parents who wish to work with you so you can learn more about them. Intended parents and egg donors have the option to choose between three different types of egg donation: Known (when both parties agree to meet, and have an open relationship; Semi-Known (some information is shared and both parties communicate via video or phone to the level at which they are comfortable); Anonymous (no identifying details are shared about either party and they do not have a relationship beyond the egg donation). Circle encourages Known Egg Donation, as we feel it is the most rewarding for all parties involved – including the baby that is born.

As part of the egg donation process, first you will participate in a 45-60 minute screening with a social worker by phone. The screening helps us identify any illnesses, emotional problems and personality disorders that might not make you a good fit for egg donation.

Secondly, you'll take a psychological exam conducted by a clinical psychologist via webcam. This is a multiple choice and true/false standardized test used widely in egg donation evaluations by agencies and clinics.

Being on the same page with your intended parents throughout the egg donation process is a must. Knowing this, Circle provides an independent attorney to represent you while the legal terms of your contractual agreement are worked out.

Some items included in your egg donor contract will be the type of egg donation you and your IPs will be doing (Known, Semi-Known or Anonymous) and what future contact looks like; control of the eggs/embryos and parentage of any children that result from the eggs/embryos.

Once you've passed the psychological screening, you’ll meet with the IVF doctor who will perform a thorough medical and genetic screening. The physician draws blood and checks for any sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, hepatitis and drug/nicotine use.

The medical screening may require travel, in which case Circle arranges your travel and your intended parents cover the costs. The medical screening is generally an overnight trip to your intended parents' IVF clinic.

Medications are given to suppress the menstrual cycle, and ovarian stimulating medications are given to stimulate the production of eggs. Most of these medications are injections that are self-administered for two-four weeks (this can vary) until the egg retrieval. The medications help coordinate your cycle with the intended mother or the surrogate mother.

Examples of these medications include birth control pills, Lupron, Ganirelix, Follistim, Gonal-F, Menopur and HCG. These may be used in different combinations depending on the clinic and physician, and some of the medications are known by various names.

You'll likely have a few local monitoring appointments near your home within the 10 days leading up to your retrieval. You’ll have your last monitoring appointments at the IVF clinic your intended parents have chosen.

The egg retrieval process is done at the U.S. IVF clinic your intended parents have chosen. If you're traveling, the trip will likely be four to nine days. The retrieval is done vaginally under a mild intravenous sedation. The process takes about 20 minutes with about an hour in the recovery room. Afterward, you may experience some mild-to-moderate abdominal cramping, spotting or bloating.

A travel companion is required to attend this trip with you to assist you back to the hotel after the procedure. You'll travel home the day following your egg retrieval and you should feel normal anywhere between a few days and a week after your procedure.

Our first-time donors generally receive $9,000, whereas experienced and successful donors as well as donor types from specific descents that are harder to find may receive a higher fee. The social worker who screens you will be happy to discuss suggested fees based on the norms of our agency.

The family that you donate to will be responsible for medical bills, travel bills and other expenses related to the donation.

Donating your eggs is a wonderful to way to help a family while helping yourself as well. While the money may not be your motivating factor in donating your eggs, egg donors have shared that they've used their compensation to go towards college, put into savings or even taken a trip they've been wanting to do!

After you've completed your egg retrieval and travel home, you'll receive an email from your program coordinator with explanations for the next steps, which include returning your travel receipts and receiving your final payment as well as information on donating again.

They'll also explain the process of waiting on results, including the number of eggs retrieved and how many matured, were fertilized, transferred and frozen. We'll also await pregnancy results, if applicable. You'll sign a medical release so Circle may obtain these records from the IVF clinic to save in your file, and, if you wish, we can update your profile to match you with new intended parents for your next egg donation.