Until recently, a woman who was unable to use her own eggs (oocytes) to have a baby had no chance to experience pregnancy and childbirth.  Today, thanks to egg donation, women with this form of infertility may now have the chance to experience the joy of childbirth and start their own families using eggs donated by other women.

The Egg Donor Program helps infertile women to build families using donated eggs.  In an egg donation cycle, the donor is treated with fertility drugs to stimulate the formation of a group of healthy eggs; meanwhile the recipient is treated with hormones to synchronize her cycle with the donor's and prepare her uterine lining for implantation.  The donor's eggs are then removed from her ovaries in an egg retrieval procedure.  These eggs are then fertilized with the recipient's partner's or donor's sperm, and the embryos that result are transferred into the uterus of the recipient woman.  Usually only two embryos of high quality will be transferred at one time to prevent a multiple pregnancy of more than twins from taking place.  The remaining high-quality embryos may be cryopreserved (frozen) for future transfer, which is especially helpful in the event that the initial transfer does not produce a pregnancy.