1998 Potential egg donors are carefully evaluated prior to entering the program. Each candidate donor is submitted to an intense medical and psychological screening.
Donors begin the process by filling out an in-depth health history questionnaire.
This form is used to ask detailed questions about a donor's health, her diet and exercise patterns, and other habits. We explore the donor's ethnic and religious heritage, and her family's history of medical illnesses. We also take considerable interest in the donor's education, occupation, and family situation. This information remains on permanent file with the clinic, providing couples with access to their egg donor's family medical history should the need arise to treat an illness later in their child's life. Perhaps the most revealing part of the donor's application is a series of short essays that each woman is asked to write describing her reasons for becoming an egg donor and her feelings for couples suffering from infertility.