Egg Donation Programme

For this, there is a need for egg donors, who have to fulfil a series of requirements in accordance with Law 35/1988 of 22nd November. Among these:

Art 5

1.- The donation of gametes and pre-embryos for the purposes authorised by this Law is a formal, confidential contract, free of charge, agreed between the donor and the authorised Centre.

5.- The donation shall be anonymous, the identification details of the donor being kept in the strictest confidence...

6.- The donor must be over eighteen years of age and in full possession of his/her faculties. His/her psychophysical status must fulfil the terms of a protocol for study of the donors, which shall be of a general nature and shall include the phenotype characteristics of the donor, and shall establish that they do not suffer from genetic, hereditary or transmissible infectious diseases.

7.- The Authorised Centres and the National Register shall adopt the appropriate measures and shall ensure that no more than six children are born from the same donor.

The egg donor undergoes ovarian stimulation in the same way as those patients undergoing IVF. Also, as with the other patients, the eggs are obtained by way of the same egg retrieval procedure. Once the eggs have been obtained, the role of the donor is over and that of the recipient begins.

Once the recipient is included in an Egg Donation Programme, she receives a hormone replacement treatment in order to prepare the uterus, perfect synchronization being essential between the cycles of the donor and the recipient.

The recipient will be advised of the donation sufficiently in advance and will be told at the time of the necessary changes in medication.

The husband or partner of the recipient attends the Centre on the day of egg retrieval from the donor, with the semen sample, in order for the corresponding technique (IVF, ICSI...), according to the case, to be carried out.

The next steps to be followed are the same as for IVF, ICSI; that is, you should contact the Laboratory to find out how the first phases of fertilisation are progressing, stating the day and time of the transfer...

Law 35/1988 of 22nd November regarding the parents and the children states, among other things:

Art.7

1.- The relationship of children born with assisted reproduction techniques shall be regulated by the legislation in force, except for the special circumstances contained in this chapter.

2.- In no case shall the registration in the Civil Register reflect information from which the nature of the offspring may be inferred.

Art.8

After having given their express prior consent to a given fertilisation with contribution from donor or donors, neither the man nor the woman shall be able to contest their parental relationship to the child born as a result of that fertilisation.

How can I be an egg donor?