Ægdonation

Eggdonation (DER) Donated Embryo Replacement
All women can voluntarily donate eggs without receiving IVF treatment themselves, and all women receiving IVF treatment can donate some of their eggs.

If many eggs are removed, i.e. over 10, some of these can be donated to women who cannot produce eggs themselves. Until June 2006, only women who were receiving test-tube treatment or similar treatments were permitted to donate eggs to other women. That meant that women who donated eggs did not know whether they would be able to become pregnant themselves and in a number of cases the eggs were abnormal.

As could be expected, therefore, the results were less positive than in countries where healthy women were permitted to donate. However this is also now possible in Denmark.

Who may give eggs to other women

If you are healthy, you can volunteer to donate eggs to women who are less fortunate.

As a general rule, women who donate eggs must be less than 35 years old at the time of the donation.

Women egg donors must be physically and mentally healthy with no serious congenital disorders.

They must be free of HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, gonorrhoea and Chlamydia.

Women egg donors receiving IVF treatment must have an adequate number of eggs and thereby have enough eggs for their own purposes, so that they can potentially have two or three fertilised eggs transferred.

The woman donor must be informed by word of mouth and in writing of the consequences of egg donation and must sign a written declaration to this effect.

Requirements in connection with egg donation
Requirements for couples receiving donor eggs are not regulated by law, but are usually based on the following considerations:

1. The couple, their overall situation and not least the woman’s health in relation to completing a pregnancy and birth, and both the man and woman must have a clean bill of health. A checklist describes the examinations including blood and urine tests, sperm analyses etc. and the other considerations that must be fulfilled before the clinic approves a couple for the clinic's egg donor programme and they are added to the waiting list for egg donation.

2. The egg donor and her interest in helping potential parents who are presumed to be able to look after the child and who have no other chance of achieving pregnancy than egg donation, and where there is a probability that this kind of treatment will succeed.

3. The interests of the child i.e. a healthy mother and healthy father in a well-established relationship who both clearly want children.

Egg donation requires that the woman recipient is treated with natural female hormones. This means that she must continuously receive treatment as it is impossible to know in advance when eggs will be available.