When intended parents are entering into a egg donation program they will often have a lot of question regarding the donors. Since the donor will play such an important role in their quest for a family, this comes as no surprise.

It is common for the intended parents to want to find out as much as they can about the donor and the process of the donation. Most of them will focus a lot on how the donors look, and often have preferences regarding physical appearances like hair- and eye colour or physique. In addition many also want to know how the donors are selected, if there is a age limit for them and also the ovarian reserve of the donor. The ovarian reserve is a measurement that indicates the donors amount of remaining eggs.

Our donors

At New Life we have an extensive database of eligible egg donors. In the database we list all relevant information about the donors. All donors go through a selection process to establish that they are suitable to become donors. The basic criteria for donors connected to New Life are a set of general rules that we settled upon to ensure that our egg donor programs will be of the highest quality.

The qualifications include the following:

• Women between the ages of 18 – 30
• Healthy, non-smoking or drug use
• Height and weight within the normal range
• Free from STD’s (Sexually Transmitted Diseases)
• Having regular periods
• Without any serious psychological disorder
• Willing to undergo medical and psychological evaluation
• To be available and ready to proceed with the egg donation program

These qualifications means that all of our donors are fit to become egg donors. Later, when a donor is selected for a egg donation program they will also undergo a long series of physical test to make sure that they are completely healthy, does not have any diseases and are in a good overall condition. We take all the necessary precautions to minimize potential risks during a donation and to have the best chances of a successful donation.

The Parents Choice

Intended parents who have decided to start a family with the help of an egg donation will get access to our donor database. This way they can search among all of our donors until they find one that matches their expectations and wishes. The parents may chose the donor but the experts of our medical team will always examine if the match between the egg donor and the intended parent is a good one. There might be physiological reasons that will make the combination a less favourable one.

The Most Important Criteria

There are several criteria to consider when intended parents are in the process of selecting their egg donor. But some of the factors are more important than others. While physical appearance and personal traits obviously will be of interest to the intended parents, medical aspects in the donor will be of much greater importance.

First, one should consider the age of the egg donor. This is because woman is at her physical peak during a certain period of her life. Preferably a donor should not be older than 30 years old, since that is when her eggs is of the highest quality. A second number that is of interest is the egg donors follicle count. The higher the number the better, but it must be at least 15 in order to become a egg donor..

There are two additional factors that are often overlooked by the intended parents despite the importance of them. One should for example always strive to find an egg donor who has her own children. If she has already had children it will be easier for her to donate eggs and to distance herself from the baby born through the egg donation. Another thing that is important when choosing a donor is to take a karyotype test. A karyotype test is done in order to detect abnormal or missing chromosomes in a sample of body cells. If the test shows any deviation it could eventually cause problems in the development and growth of a person.

A genetic screening of the egg donor is especially important if one of the genetic parents, in this case it would obviously be the father, know or suspect that he might be the carrier of a recessive harmful gene. If he does it becomes imperative to do the tests to make sure that the other genetic parent, the egg donor, does not have the same recessive gene. If that is the case, the donor will not be suitable since the baby will then be born with a dominant gene. This means that the child will not only carry the gene but have a high risk of developing the disease or the disorder in question.