The Women's Center

egggestationalEgg donor & gestational carrier services

Aurora Fertility Services offers comprehensive egg donor and gestational carrier services.

Many factors can affect a woman's ability to produce healthy eggs: absence of ovaries, ovarian failure, age, and genetic abnormalities. In any of these situations using an egg donor may be the treatment of choice. 

A gestational carrier may be an option for women who have viable eggs, but have difficulties carrying a child due to a variety of problems including previous hysterectomy. This process involves taking embryos that are created with the patient's eggs and her partner's sperm and transferring them to another woman to carry the pregnancy. The gestational carrier carries and delivers the baby and the child is then placed with the parents. Gestational carriers typically are known to the recipient couple whether a friend, family member or co-worker. There are also agencies that assist couples in finding a gestational carrier.

In either scenario the recipient couple would have the standard testing done for our infertility patients. These would include hormone blood tests, infectious disease screening, semen analysis, and a psychological evaluation.

The patient in need of an egg donor would have two options:

  • Anonymous donor - an anonymous donor is a healthy female between the ages of 21-32 who are interested in assisting couples achieve their dream of having a baby. We always protect her anonymity as well as that of our recipient couples. An anonymous donor is chosen by reviewing profiles from our pool of donors, and with the help of our donor coordinator, choosing a match that would best meet your needs. 
  • Directed donor - someone you know who, usually friends or family members who are interested in assisting you in having a baby. 

All of our donors whether anonymous or directed are thoroughly screened through questionnaires regarding their physical health, family history, interests, a psychological evaluation, and infectious disease testing as mandated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Once a donor is chosen, the screening process begins. The In Vitro Fertilization cycle is planned and the menstrual cycles of the donor and recipient are first synchronized through the use of oral contraceptives. Then the egg donor will undergo ovarian stimulation using injectable medications and the recipient will begin her cycle to prepare her uterus to carry a pregnancy. At the appropriate time egg retrieval occurs, the male partner sperm is used in the embryology lab to fertilize the eggs to develop embryos. Embryo transfer would occur three-five days after egg retrieval. 

The screening process, lab testing, psychological evaluation, infectious disease testing and ovarian stimulation process is the same for our gestational carriers as it is for our egg donors.