RMA of New York offers egg donation, also known as ovum or oocyte donation, as a fertility treatment option for individuals and couples interested in conceiving with the use of donor eggs. Egg donation is an option for women whose own eggs are unable to achieve a pregnancy due to advanced reproductive age, genetic abnormalities, previous surgeries and/or other conditions. Egg donation is also a fertility option for same-sex male couples and single men. During egg donation, an egg donor donates her eggs to enable another woman to become pregnant. The egg recipient may be the female patient or a gestational surrogate. Our expert and caring Egg Donation Team will guide you through the process to help you achieve your dream of building a family.
RMA of New York’s renowned and experienced Egg Donation Team is here for you. Our Egg Donation Team is known for its focus and success in matching the highest quality donors with recipients, while providing stellar, compassionate care throughout the matching and treatment process. Thanks to RMA of New York’s Egg Donation Program, hundreds of individuals and couples have built their families using donor eggs.
Success Rates of Egg Donation
While egg quality diminishes with age, a woman’s uterus and her ability to carry and deliver a child remains relatively constant. Therefore, egg donation offers a substantially higher chance for the delivery of a healthy baby, even in women of advanced maternal age. To view the success rates for RMA of New York, the national average, and individual centers in detail, visit the website for the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) www.sart.org. Please note that a comparison of clinical success rates may not be meaningful because patient medical characteristics, treatment approaches, and entrance criteria for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) may vary from clinic to clinic.
Third Party Reproduction - Egg Donation + Surrogacy
The Third Party Team at RMA of New York is committed to guiding intended parents through the surrogacy process. Comprised of nurse practitioners and other members of the clinical staff, the Third Party Team is a concierge service that specifically assists individuals in need of an egg and/or sperm donor, and/or a gestational surrogate. The Third Party Team is responsible for organizing the medical screening of potential surrogates, reviewing candidates to help determine eligibility, and coordinating transfer cycles.
Selecting an Egg Donor
Anonymous Egg Donors
In an anonymous egg donation cycle, the Egg Donation Team at RMA of New York expertly matches the egg recipient with a donor chosen from RMA of New York’s own select egg donor pool. The identities of the donor and recipient are kept anonymous and no identifying information is shared between donor and recipient. Recipients may request to view donor baby photos when available.
Known Egg Donors
A known egg donor can be a friend or relative who chooses to donate, or may be someone who was unknown prior to the donation process but chooses to participate as a known donor. When a recipient chooses to use a known donor, RMA of New York will provide all medical care to both the donor and recipient.
Agency Egg Donors
RMA of New York works with only New York State licensed egg donor agencies. If a recipient chooses to use an agency egg donor, the Egg Donation Team will coordinate the donor’s care with the agency.
Donor Egg Bank Partners
RMA of New York has partnered with Donor Egg Bank USA, Fairfax EggBank, and Luminary Donor Eggs to offer our patients additional donor egg options. Choosing oocytes previously retrieved and frozen from pre-screened donors provides immediate access to ovum donors and eliminates the need for a lengthy “matching” process or for synchronization of the donor’s and recipient’s menstrual cycles. To find out more about utilizing these services, please consult with your RMA of New York physician.
Our Egg Bank Partners
Shared Cycle versus Non-Shared Cycle
A recipient can choose a non-shared cycle, in which all of the eggs retrieved from the donor will be given to a single recipient. An alternative option is a shared cycle, where eggs retrieved from a donor are shared between two recipients. This can lower the cost for both recipients’ cycles. RMA of New York follows specific guidelines to help maximize the opportunity for success for both recipients, which can be discussed in greater detail with the Egg Donation Team.
About RMA of New York’s Egg Donors
RMA of New York actively recruits healthy women between the ages of 21 and 33 with no known genetic or sexually transmitted diseases. The Egg Donation Team rigorously screens egg donor candidates to ensure they are healthy and that they fully understand the donation process. Our egg donor pool consists of donors from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, including, but not limited to:
American Indian / Alaskan Native egg donors
Asian egg donors
Bi-racial / multi-racial egg donors
Black / African American egg donors
Caucasian / White egg donors
Hispanic / Latino egg donors
Indian egg donors
Jewish egg donors
Native Hawaiian / Other Pacific Islander egg donors
Egg donors experience a sense of reward and satisfaction knowing that their contribution has a profound effect on the life of another woman or couple. Many of our donors relay to us that the experience of helping a woman to conceive gives them a sense of fulfillment and contentment that they have never felt before.
The Emotional Aspects of Using Donor Eggs
Experiencing infertility can be stressful; coming to grips with knowing conception may not be possible without the help of a donor can compound anxiety. Many potential egg recipients have similar questions, such as: Should the parents ever tell their child? And if so, at what point in the child’s life will it be appropriate to reveal how he or she was conceived? And should the parents keep the egg donation process a secret from their friends and family? Recipients in the Egg Donation Program can discuss the emotional aspects of using donor eggs with RMA of New York’s licensed Psychologist Dr. Georgia Witkin.
RMA of New York serves as the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Mount Sinai Medical System. Our laboratory team is dedicated to scientific discovery, graduate medical education through RMA of NY’s REI Fellowship Program, and individualized care that focuses on you.
Our team of embryologists are consistently recognized as innovators in reproductive science and medicine, and security and safety standards. RMA of New York has been at the forefront of embryo freezing technology and cutting-edge research, helping countless individuals and partners achieve the dream of building a family.