Known Donor Egg
AART accepts friends or relatives of a couple to be “known donors”. A donor cannot be a daughter of the couple or a blood relative of the partner providing the sperm (if applicable).
The donor will be required to undergo work up, and meet with your AART physician to determine their suitability as a donor.
Anonymous Donor Egg
AART works with two different egg banks to provide our patients with a wider selection of anonymous donors as well as more choices for their cycle. The two options are working with Donor Egg Bank USA (DEB USA) or the Shady Grove Donor Egg program. Each bank has different donors and the process is different when working with either one.
Shady Grove
When working with Shady Grove, the egg donor is selected online prior to the donor having their egg retrieval. The donor has already completed the prescreening required for donation before being added to the registry. Once you select your donor, depending on the plan you choose, the donor will begin the process for egg retrieval. This can take a few months to begin if you choose a shared plan.
If you decide to use the Shady Grove egg donor program, AART will coordinate shipping your frozen sperm to the Shady Grove location that your egg donor attends. Shady Grove has many locations all over the USA. The frozen sperm samples will then be used to fertilize the eggs the day of your donor’s retrieval. Shady Grove will update you on the embryo progression, and the resulting embryos will be frozen and shipped to AART. Once the embryos have arrived at AART, you may begin the process of a frozen embryo transfer (FET) at AART if your testing checklist is completed.
More information can be found on our patient portal and Shady Grove’s website:
Donor Egg | Shady Grove Fertility
DEB USA
DEB USA has a registry of donors who have frozen eggs available. Therefore, all of the prescreening for the donor is completed, as well as the retrieval, which means there is no delay in purchasing the eggs.
When working with DEB USA, the egg donor is selected online and once you are matched to a donor, and payment is received by DEB USA, they will ship the eggs to AART. The shipping process can take up to two weeks. Once the eggs arrive at AART, you can begin a cycle with your next day one as long as your testing checklist is completed.
More information can be found on our patient portal and DEB USA’s website:
Legal Considerations
We cannot accept donors who are paid for their involvement. According to the Regulations under the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, there can be no payment to donors above and beyond expenses incurred as a result of being a donor. The Regulations related to reimbursement of donor expenditures can be found here.
Patients can access more information about this treatment on our patient portal.