Egg Donation Canada - Consider the U.S. as an Alternative
Medically reviewed by Norbert Gleicher, MD, FACOG, FACS - Written by CHR Staff - Updated on Dec 10, 2020
Information for Canadian Donor Egg Recipients
A significant number of Canadian patients have come to CHR to take advantage of our egg donor program in recent years, and the number seems to be growing every year. The Center for Human Reproduction’s program is a unique egg donor program in the United States, offering what is likely the largest and most diverse egg donor pool anywhere in the world for fresh egg donor cycles.
Many Canadian patients come to CHR to anonymously receive eggs from egg donors who closely match their criteria, without the lengthy search and wait that’s often the case in Canada.
Unlike a typical egg bank or egg donation agency, CHR is a full-service reproductive medicine and fertility clinic. We work directly with our egg donors and donor egg recipients to smoothly provide donor egg fertility treatment. We work with women who cannot conceive with their own eggs due to diminished ovarian reserve, menopause or other infertility conditions, as well as men and gay couples having a baby through surrogacy.
Egg Donor IVF for Canadian Intended Parents, at Our United States Fertility Center
CHR’s program is especially relevant to Canadian patients because legal circumstances surrounding egg donation in the U.S. are friendlier to egg donation in many ways, compared to those in Canada. In the U.S., Canadian patients can access a wide range of donor eggs almost immediately. Here are the distinguishing features of our egg donation program that might be of interest to Canadian families looking for an egg donor:
- Immediate matching: Most of our 180+ donors are available immediately. There is no waiting list.
- Extensive information: You will receive extensive information about your egg donor, including photographs and/or short videos.
- The choice is yours: You will have plenty of opportunity to review our detailed donor profiles in our egg donor database. You are the person ultimately in charge of selecting your donor. You will be able to make your own choice.
- Unique pricing and reimbursement structure: Our egg donation program is a non-for-profit service. The women in our program who are donating eggs are reimbursed according to the number of eggs they produce. You will be able to decide on the number of eggs you want to receive from your chosen egg donor, and then pay only for the number of eggs you receive.
- Complete anonymity: Our program guarantees anonymity to donor and recipient, though on rare occasions we can also perform so-called "open" or "directed" donations. We can do this if so desired by both donor and recipient, where both parties void their anonymity voluntarily. Please note, however, that with the advancement of image recognition and increasing popularity of consumer genetic testing services, anonymity of egg or embryo donation likely has a limited lifespan at this point.
- Convenience: Because a large proportion of CHR's patients are long-distance patients from outside the New York City area (both from within the United States and Canada, and from overseas), we know how to manage the logistics of long-distance fertility treatments. Whether you are from Toronto, Ontario, Quebec or a more distant province like Alberta or British Columbia, most preparatory steps in your in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle will be arranged at an IVF center near your home. You will have to come to New York City just once for a few days for your embryo transfer.
- Gender selection: Canadian patients undergoing egg donation cycles may also be eligible for elective gender selection through IVF and PGD, which is legal in the U.S.
Two Different Donor Egg Options
CHR offers two distinctly different donor egg programs, both in terms of the egg donation process and in terms of program costs: (I) The Standard Donor Egg Program (SDEP), which is described above, and (II) the Eco-Donor Egg Program (EcoDEP).
In the standard donor egg program, recipients receive fresh eggs. Donated eggs are retrieved from the donor’s ovaries for fertilization with sperm from the male partner (or donor sperm, depending on your family’s situation). Your embryo transfer takes place just days after egg retrieval.
In EcoDEP, our affordable frozen donor egg program, recipients receive donor eggs previously retrieved and frozen. These are then thawed and fertilized with sperm once selected by a recipient. Success rates tend to be somewhat higher in fresh donor egg cycles.1 In both programs, our center offers immediately available donor eggs.
For egg donation and reproductive health, Canada families need to look no further than the Center for Human Reproduction in New York City. For more information, we invite you to visit our Donor Egg Recipient FAQ page or call us at +1 212-994-4400.
To begin exploring donor profiles in our egg donor database, click below.
Sources
- Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology. Final National Summary Report for 2017. SART Cors Database website. 2017. Accessed November 14, 2020. Link.
Take a look at our donor database
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.