We sometimes see that egg donation and surrogacy get confused, despite actually being very different things! Here we break down the differences between them: Egg Donation An egg donor is […]
We sometimes see that egg donation and surrogacy get confused, despite actually being very different things! Here we break down the differences between them:
An egg donor is what it sounds like – she literally donates her eggs to a family in need.
The egg donor takes hormonal medication for several weeks and undergoes a surgical procedure to retrieve the eggs that are then donated to the intended family. Those eggs are then fertilized with sperm from the intended father or a sperm donor to create embryos.
A healthy embryo is then transferred to the recipient’s uterus. Sometimes the recipient is the intended mother, sometimes it is a gestational surrogate!
Egg donation involves passing on genetic material. The donated eggs are genetically related to the child that may result from the created embryos.
Egg donation is usually a shorter time commitment than surrogacy. On average, a donation cycle is over within a couple months, and the donor is typically not involved after the egg retrieval.
A gestational surrogate is someone who carries a pregnancy for another person or couple.
The intended family’s embryos are transferred to the surrogate’s uterus, and the surrogate then carries the pregnancy all the way through delivering.
Gestational surrogates are not genetically related to the baby that she is carrying.
Surrogacy is a long-term commitment. The surrogate carries the baby for nine months, and potentially is involved with postpartum care.
Egg donation and surrogacy are often used in tandem, though not always!
We are an egg donation agency. We match intended families with egg donors, and work with the intended family’s clinic throughout the match. As an agency and not an egg bank or IVF clinic, we only do fresh donations – no frozen cycles.
While our company works exclusively with egg donors, our parent company Northwest Surrogacy Center is a surrogacy agency! We have many families that are in need of both an egg donor and a surrogate, and work with both of our companies simultaneously. While working with one of our companies does not require you to work with the other, it does make the process easier and smoother as we share the same founders and even the same offices in Portland!
Click here if you are interested in becoming an egg donor!
Click here if you are interested in becoming a surrogate!