Hopeful parents who are new to egg donation will likely learn about egg donation from their reproductive endocrinologist (also called an RE), or another member of their fertility team. The first step is to go through their fertility clinic’s program of egg donor candidates. Those clinics that don’t have an in-house egg donor program or have a limited pool of available egg donor candidates often turn to Tulip for a wider selection.
There are three paths to finding an egg donor – clinic, frozen egg bank, or egg donor agency. Clinics are less expensive and donors are usually pre-screened, meaning they have had fertility testing, genetic screening and a psychological evaluation completed. However, clinics often have fewer available egg donors and therefore longer waitlists. Frozen egg banks may be a good option for those families who are on a budget, or who only want one child. The egg donors have already been through a cycle, the information on genetic carrier status and health is available and the eggs are ready and available to be fertilized by your clinic’s embryology team.. However, frozen egg quantities are limited per donor which means parents need to decide quickly. You may not be able to create more than a few embryos so frozen egg banks are best if you’re looking to have just one child. If you’re looking for an egg donor with very specific qualities, such as ethnicity, you may not have many candidates to choose from.
Egg donor agencies have a database of women who have chosen to become egg donors. Because Tulip partners with so many different egg donor agencies (as well as frozen egg banks and clinic programs), you’ll likely find an egg donor through an agency. The main advantage of working with an egg donor agency is that all the eggs of the cycle will belong to you, which greatly improves your chances of success. There may be higher costs because the hopeful parents will be responsible for the donor’s compensation, travel to the clinic, fertility, psychological and genetic testing. However, Tulip was created to unite these disparate agencies, clinics and egg banks on one platform. You can begin your egg donor search with Tulip by signing up for Tulip Premium (it’s free for your first month!) and searching based on your desired criteria.
Need help searching for an egg donor on Tulip?
Check out our dedicated page here.
Looking for more info on preparing for egg donation?
