Donating your
eggs

Donating your eggs means giving another woman the chance to fulfil her dream of becoming a mother.

A single egg donation can be the start of a new family desired by a woman who cannot get pregnant with her own eggs. 

There are several situations that can lead to a woman needing donor eggs:  

Treatment for oncological diseases that can cause infertility
Early menopause
Poor egg quality or repeated failure in previous cycles of fertility treatments
Insufficient ovarian reserve
Risk of genetic/hereditary disease transmission

For these women, the only way of fulfilling their dream of giving birth to a child is through egg donation by a young, healthy woman.

Egg donation is a legal procedure in Portugal and our law determines that the egg donor will never be considered the progenitor of the born children resulting from her donation (law 32/2006).

Donating your eggs will not affect your future fertility, as you are only donating some of the thousands of eggs you have at the moment.

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Can I be an egg donor? 

The AVA Clinic donation programme’s fundamental principles of conduct are respect for the legal, ethical and medical principles of all those involved – donors and recipients.

If you are healthy, over 18 and under 34 and have no serious illnesses in your family, then you can be an egg donor at AVA Clinic.

All the consultations, tests and exams you undergo during this process will be free of charge. By being a donor, you are also entitled to a financial compensation for the costs, travelling and time spent during this process (Ministry of Health Ordinance 5015/2011).

The egg donors at AVA Clinic rarely emphasise the financial compensation but say that the act of donating brings them great personal satisfaction.

I want to donate my eggs at AVA Clinic. How can I do it? 

AVA Clinic was the first Portuguese fertility centre to start an egg donation programme. We have extensive experience with this process and one of our main objectives is to ensure that our donors finish the process completely satisfied with their donation. This is a goal that has been systematically mentioned in satisfaction surveys by our egg donors.

Your act of donation will never be forgotten and the women who use donor eggs often mention their eternal gratitude to their donor.

If you are interested in becoming an egg donor at AVA Clinic, or if you still have questions or doubts about the donation process, talk to us. Book an appointment with us by calling 213 245 000 or email us at info@avaclinic.pt.

Your step-by-step process:

1. Counselling appointment

Before you can start an egg donation cycle, the first step of the process at AVA Clinic will be to attend a counselling appointment with our psychologist.

The purpose of this appointment is the understanding of all the aspects related to egg donation in order for you to be able to give informed consent. It will cover aspects related to motivation and the social, ethical and legal implications associated with egg donation. General information about the donation process is also provided.

No psychotechnical tests are carried out and our donors are not selected based on personality traits.

2. Gynaecology consultation, tests and exams

After your counselling appointment, if you wish to proceed with the donation process and there are no factors that would discourage you from donating, an appointment will be made with one of our doctors. To evaluate your reproductive health, a full gynaecological examination will be carried out in this consultation.

During the process, some tests will also be carried out to screen for known genetic and hereditary diseases, as well as to detect chromosomal abnormalities that could be transmissible. We will also need you to do a blood screening for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, HTLV and syphilis.

The tests and exams carried out will assess your reproductive health but will also give you information about your fertility and potential for getting pregnant in the future.

Once your tests and exams have been carried out, if you are considered eligible to start an egg donation process, you will then join our list of egg donors.

3. Ovarian stimulation

Without medication, the ovary releases one egg in each cycle. In this type of treatment, the aim is to be able to collect several eggs in the same cycle so that more embryos can be created in the lab. This increases the patient’s chances of success. For this to happen, your ovaries need to be stimulated and this is achieved by taking hormonal medication, which is applied subcutaneously (in a similar way to insulin).

These injections (which may be daily) will be given by you over a period that can last up to around 12 days. This process, although it may seem difficult and complicated, is actually no more than slightly uncomfortable. If you have any difficulties with this process, our nursing team will always be available to accompany you and help you with anything you need.  

During ovarian stimulation, you will need to visit our clinic every three days so that the growth of your follicles (‘pockets’ of fluid where your eggs grow) can be monitored by ultrasound. Your protocol may need to be adjusted at any time and your hormone dosages may be changed. This ultrasound monitoring is therefore essential to the success of the treatment. 

It is advisable to maintain sexual abstinence (or protected sex) from day 8 onwards, as the risk of pregnancy is very high.

4. Egg collection

Once your follicles have reached the ideal size, your egg collection will be scheduled, and your eggs will be retrieved. This procedure takes around 15 to 20 minutes and is not painful, as it is done under sedation administered by an anaesthetist.

The collected eggs are then taken to the lab, where they will be treated by our embryologists under ideal conditions for future use in a fertility treatment.  

On the day of your egg collection, you only need to allow around three hours to be in the clinic and as soon as you recover from the procedure you can return to your usual routine (with any exceptions your physician may indicate).  

You will probably have a period one to two weeks after the egg collection. Your hormonal system and menstrual cycle will soon get back to normal.

5. Post donation assessment

Around one month after your egg collection, you will have a follow-up medical appointment and your satisfaction with the donation process will be assessed.

Your donation process ends here.  However, according to Portuguese legislation, you can donate a maximum of four times if you wish.

The AVA Clinic team and certainly the woman you have just helped will be eternally grateful for your gesture. Thank you!