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Medically reviewed by Norbert Gleicher, MD, FACOG, FACS - Written by CHR Staff - Updated on Nov 11, 2019

CHR Has the World’s Leading Egg Donation Program

Egg Donation at CHR: Receiving Donor Eggs

CHR is known worldwide as a “fertility center of last resort,” and we have a strong reputation for having high IVF success rates among women with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR). In fact, one-third of women who were told that egg donation was their only option end up getting pregnant with their own eggs at CHR.

But for many patients, egg donation is the treatment option that offers the highest chance of success, which is why CHR maintains our own egg donation program. Our program is a world leader for the size and diversity of our donor pool, as well as our experience in providing fertility care for older mothers and women with DOR.

 

If I Use Donor Eggs, Is My Child Really Mine?


 

New research in the field of epigenetics (the study of changes in gene expression due to environmental factors) suggests that women who use donor eggs have a lot more influence on their child’s genes than previously thought. Many geneticists agree that the time spent in the womb is the most critical period for determining how the child’s genes will function for the rest of its life -- so in many ways, you are just as important as your egg donor in determining how your baby’s genes work. Learn more about your biological connection to your donor egg baby in our video.

 

Browse CHR’s Egg Donor Database Online

Information on all of our egg donors is available online at no charge, with no appointment necessary--even if you’re not a patient at CHR, you can browse our donor database online. (Donors: get answers to frequently asked questions about donating eggs.)

1. Sign up here for free. You can log in right away and start browsing available donors.

Browse CHR’s Egg Donor Database Online1

2. Use filters to find your perfect match. You can filter by anything from ethnicity and religion to hair and eye color.

Browse CHR’s Egg Donor Database Online2

3. Save up to 3 donors you like to your “wishlist.”

Browse CHR’s Egg Donor Database Online3

4. If you want to see more info about your chosen donors, submit your wishlist. Our staff will be in touch to set up your initial consultation, after which you’ll have access to more detailed information about our egg donors.

Browse CHR’s Egg Donor Database Online4

Our Egg Donor Database Is One of the Largest and Most Diverse in the World

CHR’s egg donor pool is likely the largest and most physically, ethnically, and religiously diverse anywhere in the world. We bring donors in from all over the United States to help our patients grow their families. In the event that our patients’ perfect donor is not in our database, we’re able to work with them to find her.

To best serve our center's extremely diverse patients, we make a concerted effort to maintain a high level of diversity in our donor pool that contains over 100 egg donors at any given time. Our egg donors include rare European and Asian ethnicities, all races, many religions and cultures, as well as a wide range of artistic, academic and athletic talents.

Our frozen donor egg program (EcoDEP), while more limited in donor choices than the fresh donor egg program described here, also offers frozen donor eggs from women of diverse backgrounds. See the frozen donor eggs available immediately in EcoDEP.

Finding Your Perfect Donor at CHR

In addition, our clinical coordinators are happy to help you find a donor with something specific - a shared personal interest or similar life ambitions, for example. We have very detailed knowledge about each of our donors, and are only too happy to share the information with recipient couples.

This diversity is partially thanks to our egg donation program's location in New York City. In addition, we recruit exceptional egg donors from outside of the immediate NYC metropolitan area. These "long-distance donors" are identified with "LDD" or "long-distance donor" in our egg donor database.

Rigorous Donor Screening Process

CHR’s egg donor program is extremely selective, with only 1-3% of applicants being admitted to our final donor pool. There are a number of requirements for an applicant to qualify as an egg donor in our highly selective egg donation program. CHR receives approximately 60-70 egg donor applications from young women every week.

To initiate the screening process, donors must complete an extremely detailed egg donor questionnaire. 15% of those who submit a completed questionnaire advance to an interview with our clinical coordinators--and even fewer candidates make it to the next stage of the candidate screening process, during which a physician interviews the candidate face-to-face.

After further disqualifications, only a very small number of remaining candidates make it into the first medical testing stage, where the candidate undergoes ultrasound and blood testing. Only once this testing stage confirms the candidate's medical fitness to be an egg donor does she join CHR's donor pool and become visible as an egg donor candidate in our egg donor wishlist system.

"On average, only 1-3% of original applicants ultimately make it into CHR's donor pool."

 

This, however, does not yet end the donor screening process at CHR: Once you choose one of our egg donors as a potential match, the donor undergoes another round of detailed medical testing, as mandated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which must utilize FDA-approved laboratories at specific time intervals from the donor's egg retrieval. Only once all lab results from this FDA-testing round have returned normal, is the donor ultimately considered "matched" with her recipient.

CHR takes great pride in its very detailed and rigorous egg donor selection process. Because we receive such a large number of donor applications, we have the unusual luxury of being highly selective, and still having a large egg donor pool of over 100 donors of diverse ethnicities, talents, interests and physical characteristics. (Donors: get answers to frequently asked questions about donating eggs here.)

High Pregnancy Rates with Egg Donation

High Pregnancy Rates with Egg Donation

CHR also reports amongst the highest pregnancy and delivery rates: In our program, cumulative pregnancy chances from a single egg donation cycle--pregnancy chances from all the embryos produced in a given cycle--are currently in the high 80% to low 90% range. Over the last few years, clinical pregnancy rates in fresh transfer cycles (embryo transfers using fresh, never-frozen embryos) have been around approximately 65%, with transfer of at most 2 embryos.

Since most fresh donor egg cycles produce far more than 2 embryos, most recipients are left with frozen embryos after their cycle, which offers additional future pregnancy chances. This is where cumulative pregnancy chances come in: patients can undergo frozen-thawed embryo transfer after their fresh embryo transfer cycle if they wish to have another child. A small number of recipients have, indeed, had up to 3 consecutive pregnancies from a single cycle with their egg donor.

Egg Donation Cycles for Long-Distance Patients

A significant portion of CHR's patients are long-distance patients. Some come from overseas for our large and diverse donor egg program, while others seek our physicians' expertise in treating women with diminished ovarian reserve or other difficult-to-treat infertility conditions. Whichever group you fall into, you will certainly benefit from CHR's accumulated experience in helping out-of-state patients with fertility treatment logistics. We have developed a number of strategies to minimize our patients' need to travel to New York City, while keeping the level of clinical care absolutely up to the CHR standards. Read more here.

Fair and Affordable Egg Donation Fee Structure

Rather than paying a flat fee to their chosen donor, recipients of donor egg IVF at CHR pay for donor eggs based on the number of mature eggs they decide to receive. This fee structure is more fair to our donor recipients than paying per cycle, as it allows recipients to decide how many donor eggs they wish to “purchase,” which makes egg donation more affordable. (On the flip side, egg donors receive compensation based on the number of eggs they produce.) Learn more about the cost of egg donation at CHR.

The Eco Donor Egg Program (EcoDEP) at CHR

If traditional fresh donor egg cycles are out of our patients’ price range, CHR offers an economical alternative program called EcoDEP (Eco Donor Egg Program). With EcoDEP, the patient will be able to choose from a list of donors whose eggs have already been retrieved and cryopreserved (frozen). Learn more about our low-cost egg donation program here.

Sign Up to See Our Donor Database

 

Norbert Gleicher, MD

Norbert Gleicher, MD, FACOG, FACS

Norbert Gleicher, MD, leads CHR’s clinical and research efforts as Medical Director and Chief Scientist. A world-renowned specialist in reproductive endocrinology, Dr. Gleicher has published hundreds of peer-reviewed papers and lectured globally while keeping an active clinical career focused on ovarian aging, immunological issues and other difficult cases of infertility.

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