Egg Donation Candidates

Columbia University Fertility Center seeks kind, thoughtful individuals to help others build their family through egg donation. To learn more about egg donation, and assess your eligibility as a donor, please fill out the contact form. Donors who are preliminarily eligible will be contacted by CUFC.

Who Is Eligible To Donate?

Egg donors are individuals with functioning ovaries in the greater New York area. Generally, egg donors are healthy nonsmokers between the ages of 21 and 32. 

How Are Potential Donors Screened?

Egg donors undergo a multi-step medical screening and testing process to ensure that the donation is safe both for themselves and the potential intended parent(s). Typically, egg donors undergo a counseling session on the risks, benefits, and implications of donation followed by a review of their current and past medical, genetic, ancestral, social, educational, and reproductive histories before engaging in medical testing and screening. 

If cleared, egg donors will undergo baseline fertility testing, a physical examination, and blood and urine testing such as infectious disease testing, blood typing, drug testing, and genetic carrier screening. Furthermore, donors who have been matched to an intended parent(s) undergo a psychosocial evaluation and counseling session, as well as additional infectious disease testing as required by the FDA and New York State Department of Health.

Known or directed donors who do not come from the Columbia University Fertility Center's donor registry, but are known to the intended parent(s), such as a friend or relative, will also undergo the same comprehensive testing and screening process.

What Is the Time Commitment for Donating Eggs?

Once an egg donor completes medical testing and screening, which can take 2-4 weeks, they may be matched to a recipient(s) or intended parent(s). Once in treatment, egg donors will likely take oral medication and then undergo hormone-based injections lasting 11-14 days on average to stimulate the ovaries. Once on injectable medications, egg donors will receive regular or daily vaginal ultrasounds and blood tests to ensure their body is responding appropriately and safely. At the end of the treatment, the donor will undergo an egg retrieval. Although this date can be estimated, the exact date of the procedure will depend on the donor’s specific response to injectable medications. Thus, egg donors should be prepared to come to the fertility center on relatively short notice on the appropriate day. Typically, egg retrievals take 30 minutes, and egg donors are permitted to return home after 2-3 hours of observation. Following the egg retrieval, an egg donor’s involvement is complete!

How Are Donors Compensated?

Columbia University Fertility Center’s egg donors receive a taxable $12,000 for each completed cycle in compensation for their time, risk, and effort in donating their eggs. In addition, all of the medical, psychological, and pharmaceutical costs associated with an egg donor’s treatment during treatment are paid for.