Home > Our Services > Donor Programs > Become a Recipient > Choosing Your Donor

At FPNC, you have the option of selecting a donor from our own registry, finding a donor through an outside agency or asking a friend or a family member to donate. Recommendations made by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) are carefully followed to ensure the privacy, safety and well-being of everyone involved. Egg donors must be at least 21 years of age on the date of oocyte retrieval and must meet the screening requirements for egg donation, which includes a psychological evaluation by a licensed counselor who specializes in third party reproduction. FPNC will work with donors from any agency that has been placed on our list of preferred agencies; this list is available upon request. The agency must adhere to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine Guidelines for Oocyte Donation (available on the web at www.asrm.org). We will not work with donors from agencies which are not on our list of preferred agencies or from agencies who are found not to be in compliance with the ASRM guidelines.

Most commonly, couples find an anonymous egg donor with the help of an agency or clinic program that matches prospective parents with donors. Some couples may also decide to ask a family member (such as a younger sister), niece, cousin, friend or acquaintance to donate eggs as a known donor. For your convenience, Fertility Physicians of Northern California has developed an in-house agency of anonymous egg donors who are local to the Bay Area and have already completed preliminary screening evaluations. We also have donors who live outside of the area and unscreened donors who are in the process of completing screening. Our list of donors is publicly available on our website and provides basic physical information about our donors. To view complete electronic profiles, you will need to obtain a password by emailing donor@fpnc.com. Photographs of our donors are available for review by appointment with a program coordinator.

Egg donors are frequently students, young women without children or young mothers who have finished childbearing. Women typically consider donating their eggs for two major reasons: they want to do something that will help another woman or couple and they appreciate the financial compensation that they will receive for their time and effort. After you have selected a potential donor, the donor will come to Fertility Physicians of Northern California (FPNC) to undergo medical screening, which is paid for by the recipient. The same screening is done regardless of whether the donor has been recruited by an agency or is a donor known to the recipient. This screening will include a psychological evaluation, review of medical history, physical exam, ultrasound, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and estradiol (E2), tests for infectious diseases (HIV, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, West Nile Virus, Hepatitis B and C), a toxicology screen (to test for drug use), screening for some genetic diseases, and basic blood tests including a blood count and chemistry panel. If the results from this medical evaluation are acceptable, the plan for the cycle is finalized and the fertility treatment can begin. If the donor does not pass screening, the recipient will have the opportunity to choose another donor to be screened, at which time the cycle will be re-planned.