Egg Donor Recipient Program

The Reproductive Genetics Institute's Egg Donor Recipient Program is probably the largest in the U.S., performing hundreds of donor's cycles every year. Our program is unique because of its large pool of carefully selected egg donors.

We use a very detailed egg donor questionnaire, which represents the screening phase of the application. Only approximately half of the candidates who apply are invited for an in-person interview with one of our oocyte evaluation program coordinators. This first interview usually eliminates another 10-20% of candidates before the remaining potential donor's face yet another interview with one of our physicians. This is followed by medical testing which includes infectious disease, genetic and drug abuse testing. Only once a candidate has cleared all of these steps is she considered a donor, ready to be matched to a recipient. Approximately 20-25% of initial applicants are finally matched to a recipient couple.

Most of our egg donation couples involve anonymous donations. This assures that donor and recipients do not know each others identity. Recipients do, however, know every last detail of the donor's medical, genetic and family history, her social and educational background and her psychological make-up, inclusive of her motivations to donate, and details of her appearance. Donors and recipient couples are mandated to sign standard Consent forms, which will assure the respective rights of both parties.

Egg Donor Recipient couples indicate their wishes in regards to a specific egg donor by filling out an Egg Donors Wish List. Based on the desired donor characteristics, we then search our egg donor pool for the best-suited donor option. Of course, no donor is ever a perfect fit. But our large donor pool allows us to come very close most of the time.

Once we receive the Egg Donors Wish List from the recipient couple, we usually can match a well fitting donor within days. This potential donor's characteristics are then presented to the recipient couple and they have the right to approve or disapprove. If they approve of the donor, we usually are in a donor's cycle within a few days to weeks. If they disapprove, the match is repeated until they approve of a donor.

RGI also offers open oocyte donations. Here donor and recipient couples are known to each other. Most cases of open (non-anonymous) donations involve family members. However, we still require that the potential donors undergo the routine screening process and qualify under RGI criteria to be an oocyte donor.

The financial risk of any adverse outcome happening to the donor, as small as it may be, usually lies with the recipient couple. As a routine commitment to the Egg Donation Program, RGI requires recipient couples to buy, in conjunction with each donation cycle, an insurance policy for the donor, which secures medical and third party insurance risks, without breach of confidentiality.

Because we are very concerned about high order multiple births, we strongly recommend in egg donation cycles, where most donors are very young, that only one to three embryos be transferred. Nevertheless, we have outstanding pregnancy rates in these cycles, exceeding 50%. Most egg donation cycles, especially in a single donor/recipient match, will result in additional embryos being cryopreserved. They offer significant opportunity for additional pregnancies.

IHR has no age limit for recipients, although RGI mandates a very detailed medical and psychological screening process for women above age 45 who wish to enter the program.

Our Egg Donation Process has an international following, with couples from Europe, the Middle East, China, the rest of Asia and South America routinely visiting our Chicago locations. We closely cooperate with physicians in many countries in preparing recipient couples for egg donation cycles, thus keeping the time they have to spend in the U.S. to a minimum.

If you wish to receive information about our Egg Donor Recipient Program, Contact Usor complete the Egg Donor Wish List to begin the egg donation process.