Same-sex Couples and Lesbian Egg Donors: Our Support

At Manchester Fertility we specialise in helping lesbian women and same-sex couples build their families through treatment that may involve using both donor eggs and donor sperm, egg-sharing or reciprocal – or Partner – IVF. 

You can apply to be an egg donor with us regardless of sexual orientation, as long as you meet the standard criteria. You can choose to specify your sexual preference on your egg donor profile, but it’s not mandatory – although some lesbian women who need egg donors may prefer an egg donor from the LGBT community.

Here are all the different ways you can become an egg donor if you’re lesbian or a same-sex couple: 

Altruistic egg donation

You can choose to be an egg donor with us and donate to help other women to have a baby. You’ll receive £750 compensation to cover your time and expenses.

Egg-sharing: Donate eggs and have IVF with donor sperm

If you wish to have treatment with donor sperm and are happy to donate eggs as part of your treatment cycle as well, you can egg-share. This is where you’ll undergo an IVF cycle but half of your eggs will be donated to our egg donor programme for use by other women.

Your share of your eggs will be fertilised by your choice of donor sperm from our national Semovo sperm donor bank, and your treatment will be carried out at a substantially reduced rate.

Reciprocal or Partner IVF: Donating eggs to your partner

Reciprocal IVF is where both you and your partner are physically involved in treatment. Your eggs will be fertilised with donor sperm, and the resulting embryo transferred to your partner.

This makes you the biological parent, whilst your partner carries the baby and gives birth. Effectively you are donating eggs to your partner. If you wish, you can also donate eggs to our donor programme and receive treatment at a reduced rate. 

Counselling

All egg donors have counselling, where all the implications of egg donation are explained, including the right of donor-conceived children to access identifying information about their egg donor from the age of 18 if they wish to know.

If you’re in a relationship you’ll both be invited to attend counselling so you can be sure egg donation is right for you.

Donate eggs with Manchester Donors

See if you meet the criteria to donate eggs with Manchester Donors. To explore more about egg donation, or treatment options using donor sperm, chat to our dedicated Donation Team on 0161 300 2734.