Recipients: General Information

elow are brief explanations of some of the main aspects of egg donation. You can also find answers to a number of questions on the page "recipient FAQ" (frequently asked questions). Please note that NY LifeSpring LLC does not act in a medical or legal capacity and does not offer medical or legal advice. All information on this site pertaining to medical or legal issues is meant to be general in nature and may be overridden by the medical or legal professionals retained by the recipients.

> Reasons to use an agency for donor matching
> Steps in the donation process
> Time required
> Confidentiality

   



Reasons to use an agency for donor matching

The medical facilities with which we work all have donor pools from which recipients may be matched, thereby avoiding an agency fee for finding a donor. The reasons some recipients elect to engage an agency to find a donor include:

• A facility's donor pool is anonymous, but the recipients want to view donor photos.
• The recipients don't want to wait, but the facility has a long waiting list for selecting from the donor pool.
• The facility does not currently have an appropriate donor in the donor pool and feels that there may be a significant delay in finding one.

   



Steps in the donation process

Throughout the following steps, NY LifeSpring LLC founder Ruth Tavor, who is fluent in Hebrew and English, personally communicates with every donor and recipient, explaining the process and either answering questions or directing them to the appropriate professionals. She is a compassionate and dedicated liaison between all involved.

Initial consultation with recipients

     All prospective recipients participate in an initial consultation that usually lasts two hours or less. During this consultation, prospective recipients are interviewed to determine their needs before they see donor profiles. The process of finding and selecting an egg donor is explained in detail, as is the schedule and cost. Once their needs have been established and their preliminary questions have been answered, prospective recipients are shown donor profiles and photographs. Ruth Tavor personally reviews with the recipients information about any donors of interest, giving any personal insights and observations she gleaned from the donor's interviews.

Donor pre-screening

     The first step for potential donors at NY LifeSpring LLC is a pre-screening, consisting of an interview, a questionnaire seceral pages long and a review of photographs that can be shown to prospective recipients. It is called a pre-screening because the results are used to determine if a potential donor should be considered for the actual screening, which includes medical, genetic and psychological tests. It is also used to select appropriate potential matching recipients when specific criteria such as eye color, hair color and height are deemed important.

Matching

     Once a potential donor has passed the pre-screening, her information and photographs are offered to appropriate recipients for their consideration. As new donors become available, their information is forwarded to all potentially matching recipients. NY LifeSpring LLC does not try to make judgements regarding recipient preferences when sending out new donor information. If specific criteria given by the recipients at the time of the initial consultation do not rule out a new donor as a potential match, the information will be forwarded for their review. Once the donor has been matched, NY LifeSpring LLC's role is restricted to that of coordination and scheduling liaison between the donor, recipients and medical facility. All the remaining steps in this list are performed by the appropriate medical and psychological professionals.

Donor blood test

     When a potential donor is matched with a recipient, a blood test is administered on a certain day of her menstrual cycle to determine if she should continue on to the psychological exam.

Donor psychological examination

     Once a potential donor passes the initial blood test, she is given a psychological exam to determine if she is making a well informed, mature decision. At this stage of the process, potential donors should be clear of purpose and emotionally unconflicted.

Donor medical and genetic tests

     The last step of the screening process comprises the medical and genetic exams. If the donor passes them both, she is cleared to begin her injections at the appropriate time.

Preparing the recipient

     When the donor has passed the entire screening process and is ready to begin her donation cycle, the recipient is given hormone injections to prepare her uterine lining and synchronize her with the donor.

Donor injections and monitoring

     For approximately 10 to 14 days, the donor is stimulated with hormone injections to cause more eggs than usual to mature. Normally, most of these eggs would remain undeveloped and be flushed out during the donor's next period. During this stimulation phase, the donor is monitored with ultrasound exams and blood tests. At the appropriate time, a final injection is scheduled to prepare for retrieval. After receiving instruction from a nurse at the hospital or clinic, the donor generally injects herself, or enlists the assistance of a friend or relative.

Retrieval and fertilization

     A certain amount of time after the last injection, the doctors sedate the donor and retrieve the eggs. On the day of retrieval, after it takes place, the donor is compensated. On that same day, the recipient's male partner provides sperm and the eggs are fertilized and then incubated while they mature.

Implantation

     After the fertilized eggs have developed into embryos over several days, a small number of them are selected and implanted in the recipient's womb to develop in a regular pregnancy.

   



Time required

Once a donor is matched with a recipient, screening can begin three days after the donor's next period. From that first day of screening, it will usually be about two months until the day the eggs are retrieved and fertilized. The screening is generally scheduled on several days toward the beginning of the two months, then there are a couple of weeks of waiting for the results. Next, assuming the tests indicate the donor may proceed, there are about 10 to 14 days of injections that precede the day of retrieval and, after that, several days over which the embryos are allowed to develop in vitro before implantation.

   



Confidentiality

A desire to maintain confidentiality is one of the main reasons that recipients decide to select an egg donor through NY LifeSpring LLC. Donors will only find out how many oocytes (eggs) were retrieved. They will not know whether the cycle resulted in pregnancy, nor even how many embryos resulted from fertilization. Please see the "Recipients" page in the "Privacy" section for additional information.