There are two different journeys to finding an egg donor. The first, and the one that Fertile Leaf recommends, is to work with an egg donor agency or Concierge. The agency or Concierge will have a database of several hundred donors that are typically pre-screened. Some donors will be fully screened and ready to start a cycle, whereas other donors on the database will be partially screened. The advantage of looking at a database is that the intended parent can view many donors that fit their criteria and affording them the opportunity to make an informed decision in choosing a donor. The second journey is for those intended parents that have a family member or friend, or perhaps a friend of a friend, or someone they found through an online group, who steps forward and volunteers to assist them. Both journeys will require screening of the egg donor. Of course, the criteria for the qualifications of being accepted as an egg donor may be less intensive when an intended parent brings their own donor to an IVF clinic or mental health professional for screening. As an example, most recruiting agencies have an upper age limit for donors of 35 years. However, the IVF doctor will waive this upper age bracket if a sister is helping a sister and the donor sister is 39 years of age. Current knowledge is that women are born with about 400,000 eggs and during each menstrual cycle the body recruits 30 or more eggs to mature one for possible fertilization. During a donation cycle, a donor is given increased doses of this maturing hormone so that more of the eggs recruited that month would mature (typically 8-15). Therefore, the eggs that your donor donated to you would have been lost that month when she has her menstrual cycle. “I was never going to use those eggs in any case. I could flush my eggs each month or offer them to an intended parent. A child would never have been created from my eggs if not for the intended parents really wanting and creating that child.” The first child born from egg donation, according to the Wikipedia, was reported in Australia in 1983. Since that time, IVF doctors have honed their skills on how to evaluate egg donors to offer an intended parent the highest rate of success. Please remember that every IVF doctor and each egg donor agency or Concierge will have their own criteria in accepting an egg donor. The list below is meant as a guideline and is based on our over thirty years of experience of working in this field.