Kristie McNealy, MD

The first egg donor baby in the United States was born in California in 1984. Originally, donor eggs were seen as a way for women to become pregnant after losing their own eggs due to cancer chemotherapy or other diseases. But, as more women began to put off motherhood until they established their career and achieved other goals, pregnancy through egg donation has become increasingly commonplace. In total, about 100,000 babies conceived with donor eggs have been born in the US since 1984. By 2004, donor eggs were used in 12% of all fertility treatments, and over 8,300 babies were born from donor eggs that year alone.

If you’re having trouble conceiving, or have been told that you won’t be able to conceive a child of your own, but you really want to experience pregnancy as well as motherhood, using donor eggs may be the right option for you. Egg donors are used in women who are otherwise healthy, but don’t have any viable eggs of their own, either because of their age or other medical conditions. Conceiving through egg donation is also an option for women who know they carriers of certain genetic diseases that they don’t want to risk passing on to their children.

The egg donation procedure is similar to the procedure for in vitro fertilization. There are many options for finding and choosing donors, and arranging the egg donation procedure. We’ll discuss more about these options, as well as becoming an egg donor later in this series.

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