Donating Eggs for Reduced-Cost IVF: Egg-Sharing FAQs

Would you donate some of your eggs to our donation programme as part of your IVF cycle?

Egg-sharing IVF gives you cheaper private IVF treatment with our fertility specialists for £1,000 in return for your egg donation; whilst your generous gift means we can help more women who need an egg donor to have a baby.

Our Donation team answers your most common FAQs about egg-sharing IVF, including egg-sharing and donating eggs if you have PCOS, freezing your eggs and the process:

Is the process of an egg-sharing IVF cycle different to a standard IVF cycle?

The only difference between an egg-sharing IVF cycle and a conventional IVF cycle is that you don’t use all of your eggs we retrieve during the egg collection for your own treatment. Half of them will be donated to our Manchester Donors programme for use by other women.

Am I put on different medication for my IVF cycle to produce more eggs to donate?

You won’t be given a different dose of fertility medication if you’re egg-sharing – your drugs protocol remains as it would be if you were having a regular IVF cycle.

Can I egg-share and donate eggs, but freeze my share of my eggs to use in a future cycle instead?

Yes, you have the option of an egg-sharing and freezing cycle. Instead of your eggs being fertilised straight away, we’ll store them in our laboratory in liquid nitrogen using the latest fast-freeze technology to maximise egg survival rates. Storage for up to one year is included in your subsidised egg-sharing and freezing cycle.

When you’re ready to have a baby, your eggs are thawed and fertilised using ICSI, where a single healthy sperm from your partner – or from one of our sperm donors – is injected directly into the egg to fertilise it. Your embryos will be cultured to advanced Blastocyst stage, and dipped into EmbryoGlue to help them implant on the day of your embryo transfer.

You can also choose to have your embryos placed in our time-lapse EmbryoScope which helps to ensure only the best embryos are chosen for transfer at additional cost.

Can I egg-share if I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome?

Having PCOS doesn’t mean you can’t egg share as part of your IVF cycle. But because it typically causes ovulatory issues, if you have PCOS your IVF cycle requires careful planning and a specific treatment protocol tailored to you, taking into account your ovulation history and predicted response to ovarian stimulation.

Your ability to egg-share depends on how many eggs you produce. If eight eggs or more are collected, you share your eggs equally with the recipient. If an odd number is collected, the extra egg is allocated to you for your own treatment.

But if you produce less than eight eggs, you keep all the eggs for your own treatment, at no additional cost to you and with no further commitment to our egg-sharing scheme.

Ovarian stimulation is always carried out using the most appropriate dosage of fertility medication for you, that minimises your risk of overstimulation.

Our Medical Director Dr David Polson specialises in overcoming ovulatory disorders including PCOS, and through our highly tailored approach we have helped many women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome to successfully conceive through IVF or IUI.

What is the success rate for egg-sharing IVF?

We have excellent success rates for our egg sharers, over 46% of women who donate eggs with us as part of their IVF cycle achieve pregnancy.

If you’d like to donate eggs as part of your IVF cycle, you must meet the same criteria as altruistic egg donors. You must be aged 18-35, in good health and a non-smoker, with no family history of inheritable or genetic diseases. Find out more about egg donation criteria here.

Questions? Speak to our friendly Donation Team on 0161 300 2734. You can also explore more egg-sharing FAQs here.