To the incredible UK women who donate eggs ...

[Hopeandlight]

It would be great if any of you are happy to share what your motivations were/are for donating your eggs and also to tell me how much info is given on you to recipients please?

I've been pregnant 4 times but only have one baby - our daughter conceived with my egg and my partner's sperm through ivf. Since then all our following attempts have been unsuccessful. My partner's sperm is fine - the issue is with my eggs. We're considering a UK donor egg cycle with my partner's sperm.

I know you're not allowed to provide identifying info about yourself to a recipient and not allowed to provide photos, but I'm wondering about the volume of info you are allowed to give.

Are you only allowed to give the absolute basics; height, weight, eye colour and hair colour? Or are you allowed to give more info, for example; whether you wear glasses and whether you're long or short sighted, small ears/average size ears/large ears, button nose/average size nose/large nose, shape of face (oval/square/round/long etc), eyes close together/far apart/equally set, large forehead/average hairline/low hairline etc etc etc.

If any of you are happy to share your motivations for becoming an egg donor and how much info about you is passed to recipients I'd be really grateful.

Thanks so much!

Sorry I know you are asking for donors to respond but just wanted to respond. Psychical characteristics will be limited to the usual height, eye colour, hair colour, blood group and so on, the rest is subjective I guess so would be hard to disclose as one persons big nose isn't the same as another's. Donors are invited to provide a pen portrait and goodwill message to be shared with the recipient and then with the child at 16, the volume of info the donors give differs between donors but typical may include a little about reasons for donating, hobbies etc, it's often redacted if they provide identifiable info

I’ve donated eggs twice. My motivation was that I’d had a child through the gift of sperm donation and I was happy to pay that forward. I think I’ll do it once more if DC2 weans while I’m still young enough.

PP has already answered your question about info provided which is helpful because I can’t remember any of this very well (except the pen portrait which I do remember). I donated through an agency (altrui) and I’m pretty sure I did share a couple of photos with them and discussed my motivations etc, but of course not all the info they gathered on me was for the purpose of sharing with the recipient.

Good luck OP.

Hey - I did donor egg ivf abroad and now have twin boys it was anonamous so we got some information like height weight hair colour eye colour occupation interests etc

But to be fair neither of the twins really match the donors characteristics they're actually more similar to me/hubby so as you can appreciate having details and what you end up with can be two different things. Our clinic were also open to you asking more questions if you needed to and would give as much info as they legally were aloud to.

Our donor had green / hazel eyes and light brown hair , hubby has dark blonde hair abs green/hazel eyes and I have dark blonde hair and blue eyes.

The boys - one has brown hair and light blue eyes looks like me and big brother and the other boy blonde hair and dark blue eyes the double of his dad.

Hope that helps a little

@Lauren83

Sorry I know you are asking for donors to respond but just wanted to respond. Psychical characteristics will be limited to the usual height, eye colour, hair colour, blood group and so on, the rest is subjective I guess so would be hard to disclose as one persons big nose isn't the same as another's. Donors are invited to provide a pen portrait and goodwill message to be shared with the recipient and then with the child at 16, the volume of info the donors give differs between donors but typical may include a little about reasons for donating, hobbies etc, it's often redacted if they provide identifiable info

Yes, noted. Thanks

@NellWilsonsWhiteHair

I’ve donated eggs twice. My motivation was that I’d had a child through the gift of sperm donation and I was happy to pay that forward. I think I’ll do it once more if DC2 weans while I’m still young enough.

PP has already answered your question about info provided which is helpful because I can’t remember any of this very well (except the pen portrait which I do remember). I donated through an agency (altrui) and I’m pretty sure I did share a couple of photos with them and discussed my motivations etc, but of course not all the info they gathered on me was for the purpose of sharing with the recipient.

Good luck OP.

What an amazing gift to give. Hope that doesn't sound patronising. Re the rest of your email yes sure understood.

@treezuk

Hey - I did donor egg ivf abroad and now have twin boys it was anonamous so we got some information like height weight hair colour eye colour occupation interests etc

But to be fair neither of the twins really match the donors characteristics they're actually more similar to me/hubby so as you can appreciate having details and what you end up with can be two different things. Our clinic were also open to you asking more questions if you needed to and would give as much info as they legally were aloud to.

Our donor had green / hazel eyes and light brown hair , hubby has dark blonde hair abs green/hazel eyes and I have dark blonde hair and blue eyes.

The boys - one has brown hair and light blue eyes looks like me and big brother and the other boy blonde hair and dark blue eyes the double of his dad.

Hope that helps a little

Thanks treezuk for sharing your story. Yes true what you say - the details on the donor you receive can be different to reality. We've decided to opt for a UK egg donor. Congrats on your twin boys!

Hi @Hopeandlight, are you still looking to hear from egg donors?
I just donated mine and I'm trying to remember what information I had to submit. I think the information they asked for was very basic, as in just height, weight, hair colour and eye colour. However, I also had the option to write a little summary about myself in which I went into a bit more detail. I would assume that potential recipients would get to read that before they use the eggs.
As for motivation, I just heard more and more stories about people struggling to conceive so I thought if I can make a difference, why wouldn't I.

Hi @Hopeandlight - I donated my eggs last year.

My motivations for doing were twofold: I am in a same sex marriage and our DD was conceived via sperm donated by a close friend. My wife gave birth to our DD (her eggs). As we were able to have our child via donation, it seemed right that I should do the same for someone else.

I also know that I do not want to ever be pregnant so it seemed silly for my perfectly good eggs to go to waste when there are so many people who desperately want to conceive but can't.

On the info I gave - it was the basic physical stuff as well as questions about level of education and religion. I also wrote a little summary of myself that I believe would be made available to any possible recipients; this was about my character I guess - values, interests etc. I later sent in a photo of myself when it was confirmed that someone was interested in using my eggs.

Hope that's useful and wishing you all the best!