Selecting Your Egg Donor

Carrying a child and giving birth to that child is something most women have a great desire, if not a need, for. Connecting young healthy donors with couples wanting to create their own families is not just a job form me; it brings great joy and fulfillment to my life as well.

With Hawaii's culturally diverse population we have egg donors of many different ethnic backgrounds. Our donors include women of European, American, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Korean lineage as well as a few from other Asian countries. As interracial marriage is common in Hawaii we also have donors with multiple cultural backgrounds such as one parent who is Caucasian and the other Japanese or one Chinese parent and one Vietnamese. Nearly every possible cultural combination has been represented, at one time or another, in our group of donors.

Donor Profiles: Once you inform us of your ethnic/cultural preference for your egg donor we will send you several donor profiles. Each profile contains a photograph of the donor, personal health information, educational background, family medical health history, and a personally written statement telling why the young woman volunteered to become a donor. Other information, such as hobbies and special interests or talents, is also often included.

We are always available to discuss your questions or concerns about the donor selection process. Our medical program is also available to answer any questions that might arise about the donor's medical background, fertility history or previous experiences, if any, with the egg donor process.

Donor Screening: After you have selected a potential donor we will verify that her screening process is complete. If she has never served as a donor before then she will go through the psychological tests, have various blood tests and be seen by one of our physicians. Donors previously evaluated need to only repeat a few blood tests.

Egg Donation Cycle: At this point we are ready to schedule the egg donation cycle based on yours and the donor's availability. We will work with our medical team to make sure all details are taken care of appropriately. This ensures that the actual treatment process unfolds on schedule and as planned.

Egg Transportation

Normally the process of egg donation requires the recipient couple and the egg donor to be in the same geographic area or at least to be treated in the same medical facility. The recent improvement in embryo cryopreservation makes another option possible: embryo transportation. This process permits recipient couples to remain in their own home environment under the care of the physician and fertility center they are comfortable with.

Although a few reports of freezing eggs have appeared in the medical literature, it remains true that eggs must first be fertilized before they are frozen to have any real chance of surviving the freeze-thaw process. Fortunately this technique has been greatly improved, standardized and is now a routine part of in vitro fertilization. This allows a couple to send the husband's frozen sperm to the medical team we work with in California where they can be used to fertilize eggs from one of our donors. The fertilized eggs (embryos) can then be shipped to the fertility center the recipient couple has been working with. There the embryologists can thaw the embryos, culture them and schedule the embryo transfer at the convenience of the recipient couple.

The fact that microscopic fertilized eggs routinely survive the rigors of being frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen seems strange or even impossible. However this cryopreservation process has been a normal part of the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process since the early 1980's. It is also extremely common with egg donation: about 70% of recipient couples who use our donors for fresh embryo transfers will have extra good quality embryos to freeze. An embryo that survives the thawing process intact will have just as good a chance of implanting and creating a pregnancy as a "fresh" or never frozen embryo. And the risk the baby will have a significant birth defect is the same after cryopreservation as it is for natural conception. This has been proven true not only for humans but also in the animal industry, which has been freezing embryos for decades.

The option of embryo transportation for egg donation is open to all those who have been working with a fertility program skilled in IVF. The only downside is that about 25% of embryos will not survive the freeze and thaw process. On the plus side, however, is the avoidance of considerable travel costs and inconveniences.