How to choose an egg donor

Once people have decided to enlist the assistance of an egg donor to have a baby, they need to find a suitable egg donor. Something that if done on your own, can feel very much like going on a blind date, blind-folded

Selecting an egg donor is not too unlike online dating where you can view the profiles of an overwhelming number of potential suitors. Only, in this case, your ‘matchmaking’ service is not a dating service website, but an egg donation agency who knows that this is not just about a once off event, but instead understands that choosing the right donor is one of the most important decisions you will make for your future family. After selecting a reputable egg donor agency, donor recipients will have access to the agency’s database of egg donors from where they will be able to peruse and review a variety of egg donor profiles. Egg donors are healthy young female volunteers between the ages of 21 and 34 years old. In South Africa, an egg donor’s identity is never revealed – which is why future parents are only able to view baby and toddler photos  of their donor. This is to protect the donor’s anonymity

But in order to make sure that donors select the right person, all the egg donor profiles contain extensive and detailed information about the donor: From her physical traits, full medical history, family information, academic information, personality traits, interests, social as well as professional aspects. In fact, you will get to know virtually everything about her, except her real name. Her profile should also state her egg donation stipulations and availability.

These detailed profiles allow the recipients to make an informed choice and to ultimately select someone who closely matches their own uniqueness in attributes and physical appearance.

All efforts are undertaken by reputable egg donor agency to optimise the process for egg donors and their recipients to make the process as efficient as possible and to increase the success rate of conception. An established egg donation agency will be able to effectively guide and support recipients about selecting the right profiled egg donor. It is important that people have access to a solid and reputable egg donor database.

When egg donation recipients find ‘the one’, that ideal candidate who is the right fit for them, they will most often experience contentment and peace when reading the egg donor profile. Sometimes it’s a ‘gut feel’ thing, othertimes it’s a ‘connection’ that takes place when you read a specific profile.  But no matter how you choose your perfect donor, it is vital that the ‘matchmaking’ agency makes the process as comforting and fulfilling as possible.

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Tertia

Tertia Albertyn is the founder of Nurture - South Africa’s longest-running and most successful Egg Donation Program. An accomplished speaker and an award-winning published author, as well as an ex-infertility patient herself, she is highly regarded in South Africa and internationally for the work she does in infertility. Tertia was instrumental in establishing the first FDA-approved frozen donor egg bank in Africa. Tertia has an MBA from the University of Cape Town and lives in Cape Town, South Africa with her husband and three children.