Screening Egg Donors
All egg donors, both known and anonymous, should be screened according to the standards recommended by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. The donor should be younger than 34 years of age (except in special circumstances) and preferably with proven fertility. This is because younger woman respond move favorably to the hormone medications used during the procedure and their eggs result in higher pregnancy rates. Natural pregnancies in woman over the age of 34 carry an increased risk of the child having a chromosomal abnormality such as Down Syndrome. Therefore, if the donor is over 34 years old, prenatal diagnosis may be suggested to the recipient couple if pregnancy is established.
The donor must be screened for genetic diseases, hepatitis B and C, HIV, syphilis, and Rh incompatibility. Some form of psychological evaluation is also recommended.
One concern with the use of donor eggs is the risk of HIV transmission. The available testing is very accurate but it may not pick up a recently acquired infection (less than six months). The risk of this occurring is extremely low, and the current practice is to use fresh eggs. Eggs unfortunately cannot be frozen because the freezing process damages them. People concerned about HIV risk can consider having the donated eggs fertilized with sperm and the resulting embryos frozen for future use. After six months this donor can be re-tested and if she is still negative for HIV, the embryos can be thawed and transferred to the recipient's uterus. The drawback of this approach is that pregnancy rates with frozen embryos are lower than pregnancy rates with fresh eggs or fresh embryos.