Plan Your Family

A donor egg refers to using the eggs of another woman to become pregnant.

Egg donors must meet certain medical and ovarian criteria, be screened for medical, infectious, and psychological disorders, and should be under age 35. To retrieve an egg, donors go through the same in vitro fertilization process up to the egg retrieval part.

 

 

 

Sources for egg donors include:

1. Known donor in Canada: In Canada, it is not legal to pay or compensate egg donors, so the egg donor must be a person who donates for altruistic reasons. The egg donor is often a friend or relative of the intended mother. The egg donor must still be screened in accordance with Health Canada guidelines and also for medical, psychological, genetic or ovarian reserve issues.
2. Anonymous or known egg donor from outside Canada: In the US it is legal to pay egg donors who may be known or anonymous. All egg donors are mandatorily screened according to US Food and Drug Administration regulations. There are 3 legal ways to use egg donors from outside Canada:
   • Fresh donor egg: The intended parents travel to the country where the identified egg donor is and go through a fresh IVF cycle with her. The embryo(s) are transferred into the recipient (intended mother).
   • Frozen donor egg: The frozen eggs are stored in an Egg Bank for purchase and legally shipped to Canada.
   • Frozen embryos using donor egg: Embryos are created, frozen, and shipped to Canada from donor eggs and intended father/donor sperm at the clinic in the US.

Donor egg success rates are generally high but depend upon many factors including: the age and history of the egg donor, success rates of the Egg Bank, and receiving clinic if applicable.

Genesis Fertility staff are extremely careful with the safe handling and storage of donor eggs. If you have any questions about the egg donation process or costs involved, book an appointment with our fertility doctors.

Indications:

• Poor egg quality in the intended parent
• Lack of eggs (ovarian insufficiency) in the intended parent
• Premature ovarian failure, early menopause, or primary ovarian insufficiency

You may find the following articles helpful:

• Would You Donate Your Eggs to a Couple Who Couldn’t Conceive?

Indications:

• LGBTQ couples who have untreatable azoospermia (no sperm)
• Same sex female couple

Genesis Fertility Centre can receive your donor sperm once a consultation, investigation and mandatory counseling appointment have been completed. The sperm must be shipped in accordance with the below policy:

1. A known sperm donor must be screened with the same methods as an anonymous sperm donor.Legal contracts should be acquired since the role of the known sperm donor in the child’s life may later be questioned. The donor must be screened by ‘ReproMed‘ in Toronto in accordance with Canadian Guidelines and the sperm quarantined for 6-9 months prior to release for use. It is not legal to pay/compensate a known sperm donor.
2. Anonymous / known donor sperm may legally be purchased through sperm banks which are Canadian compliant. Sperm can be chosen from a known or unknown donor identity and may have whatever characteristics (e.g. ethnicity, education, religion etc.) are important to the intended parent(s).

Genesis Fertility Centre only receives Canadian compliant sperm from the following distributors:

Can-Am Cryoservices
Phone: 1-888-245-3471

Outreach Health Services
Phone: 1-866-785-4709

ReproMed – The Toronto Institute for Reproductive Medicine
Phone: 1-877-317-6079 ext. 2

This allows one partner to undergo the IVF process for the purpose of egg retrieval, but the fertilized embryos are transferred into the other partner. In this way, both parents are able to participate biologically in the pregnancy. The process is identical to IVF with additional technologies as required.

 

Once the medical, psychological and legal components are in place, the intended parents undergo ‘in-vitro fertilization’ and the resulting embryo(s) are transferred into the carrier’s uterus. After birth, the surrogate then gives the child to the intended parents.

At Genesis, we pride ourselves in providing a thorough screening process, and full disclosure of the risks and successes of surrogacy. Intended parents require a legal contract between themselves and the potential surrogate. This legal contract is arranged privately. A counselling session is also required for the intended parents and the surrogate prior to starting treatment. Once these medical, legal and counselling components are complete we can start the process.

In what cases would a gestational carrier be needed?

A woman who has healthy ovaries but cannot carry a pregnancy for one of the following reasons would require a gestational carrier:

• Absent uterus (e.g. after hysterectomy)
• Uterine abnormalities (e.g. severe scarring)
• Medical reasons that make pregnancy unsafe

Surrogacy may also be a viable option for gay men and couples.

What to know about finding a gestational carrier surrogate:

Under the Assisted Human Reproduction Technology Act passed in 2004, a surrogate mother may be reimbursed for expenses such as prenatal vitamins, costs of traveling to the doctor, and loss of income. However, she cannot receive any sort of wage for carrying the child.

Commercial surrogacy is a form of surrogacy in which a surrogate or gestational carrier is paid. This procedure is legal in several countries, but not in Canada. Consequently there is no list of surrogates available at Genesis. By law we cannot put couples needing surrogacy in contact with potential surrogates; rather, the couple must find a surrogate themselves.

To be a surrogate a woman must be healthy, have a ‘BMI’ <= 30 kg/m2), be under age 45 and have had at least one healthy, term pregnancy.