Egg Donation Candidates

Columbia University Fertility Center seeks kind, thoughtful individuals to help others build their family through egg donation. To learn more about egg donation, and assess your eligibility as a donor, please fill out the contact form. Donors who are preliminarily eligible will be contacted by CUFC.

Who Is Eligible To Donate?

Egg donors are individuals with functioning ovaries in the greater New York area. Additionally, generally egg donors must be healthy nonsmokers between the ages of 21 and 32.

How Are Potential Donors Screened?

The screening of recruited donors is a comprehensive, multi-step process. Donors undergo a counseling session on the risks, benefits and implications of donation, followed by fertility testing. This is followed by an examination of past medical, genetic, ancestral, social, educational, and reproductive histories, and baseline infectious disease, genetic, karyotype, CBC, blood type and drug testing. Furthermore, donors who have been matched to an intended parent(s) undergo additional testing as required by the FDA and New York State Department of Health once in treatment.

Known or directed donors who do not come from the Columbia University Fertility Center's donor registry, but are known to the intended parent(s), such as a friend or relative, must still undergo the same comprehensive testing and screening process.

How Does Egg Donation Work?

Once a donor has passed initial testing and screening and is matched to an intended parent(s), they will undergo ovarian stimulation using hormone-based injectable medications. The donor’s response to stimulation is monitored carefully using vaginal ultrasound examinations and blood tests. Typically, eggs are surgically retrieved after 11-14 days of injections, but this may vary per patient. Egg retrieval takes about 30 minutes from start to finish, and the donor is usually permitted to go home after two to three hours of observation.

What Is the Time Commitment for Donating Eggs?

The time commitment for an egg donation cycle varies, but is traditionally between eight to ten weeks. The testing and screening process takes two to three weeks, with an additional three to four week period required for treatment itself. During treatment, donors will likely take oral medication, and then undergo hormone-based injections to stimulate the ovaries. The medication is monitored by a series of vaginal ultrasound and blood tests. Most treatments require frequent office appointments for these tests, and as the follicles approach maturity, the donor may need to come to the office for brief, morning visits on a daily basis. At the end of the treatment, the donor will undergo an egg retrieval. Although this date can be estimated, the exact date of the procedure will depend on the donor’s specific response to medications. Thus, the donor should be prepared to come to the fertility center on relatively short notice on the appropriate day. Following the egg retrieval, the donor’s involvement is complete.

How Are Donors Compensated?

Egg donors do not “sell” their eggs, as it is illegal for them to do so in the state of New York. However, Columbia Fertility’s donors receive a taxable $10,000 for each completed cycle in compensation for their time, risk, and effort in donating their eggs. In addition, all of the medical, psychological, and pharmaceutical costs associated with the donor’s treatment during treatment are paid for.