Egg donor requirements fall into several categories: age, physical health, genetic history, psychological readiness, infectious disease testing, and lifestyle factors. Most applicants are surprised by how thorough the process is. Clinics and donor agencies screen heavily because the eggs will be used to create pregnancies, and both the donor’s safety and the health of any resulting child are at stake.
Age Requirements
Most egg donor programs accept applicants between ages 21 and 34, though some clinics set the upper limit at 29 or 31. The lower cutoff exists partly for legal reasons (ensuring donors can give informed consent to a complex medical procedure) and partly because younger applicants may not have finished considering their own reproductive goals. The upper limit reflects egg quality, which declines measurably in the mid-30s. Donors at the younger end of the range typically respond better to the hormone medications used during the process and produce more viable eggs per cycle.
BMI and Physical Health
Most clinics accept donors with a BMI between 18 and 30. A BMI outside that range can affect how your body responds to ovarian stimulation medications and increases the risk of complications during egg retrieval. Even if your BMI falls within the acceptable window, clinics evaluate your full medical history, including any chronic conditions, surgeries, or ongoing medications.
Donors with a major birth defect of complex origin, such as a neural tube defect, cleft lip, limb difference, or heart malformation, are typically excluded. Minor congenital anomalies (structural differences that don’t carry significant medical or cosmetic consequences) generally won’t disqualify you, as long as there’s no indication of an underlying genetic syndrome.
Genetic Screening
You’ll undergo carrier screening for a panel of inherited conditions. The specifics vary by program, but expanded panels now test for dozens to hundreds of conditions, including cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, spinal muscular atrophy, and fragile X syndrome. Being a carrier of one condition doesn’t automatically disqualify you. Clinics compare your results to the intended father’s or sperm donor’s genetics to assess whether a pairing would put a child at elevated risk.
What will disqualify you is a personal or family history that suggests hereditary disease. Programs ask detailed questions about your parents, siblings, grandparents, and sometimes aunts, uncles, and cousins. A strong family pattern of early-onset cancer, neurological disease, or serious psychiatric illness can be grounds for exclusion, even if you’re healthy yourself.
Required Infectious Disease Testing
The FDA mandates specific infectious disease testing for all reproductive tissue donors. Before you can proceed with a cycle, you must test negative for:
- HIV types 1 and 2
- Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis C
- Syphilis
- Chlamydia
- Gonorrhea
These aren’t optional extras set by individual clinics. They’re federal requirements under 21 CFR Part 1271. Testing is repeated before each donation cycle, so even repeat donors go through this every time.
Psychological Evaluation
Every donor program requires a psychological screening, typically conducted by a licensed psychologist with experience in reproductive medicine. The evaluation assesses whether you fully understand the process, the legal implications of donating genetic material, and the emotional weight of knowing biological offspring may exist that you won’t parent. Clinicians are looking for signs of coercion (financial desperation, pressure from a partner), unresolved mental health conditions, and unrealistic expectations about the experience.
The format varies. Some programs use a structured interview alone, while others combine an interview with standardized personality assessments. If you’re donating through an outside agency rather than a hospital-based program, the agency typically arranges this screening, but the fertility clinic may have its own eligibility criteria that must also be met.
Drug, Nicotine, and Alcohol Restrictions
You must be drug-free throughout the donation process, and clinics verify this with urine drug testing. That includes marijuana, even in states where it’s legal recreationally. Nicotine is also disqualifying: most programs require that you haven’t used nicotine products for at least six months before applying. Harder drugs like narcotics are an automatic disqualifier.
Alcohol policies are less standardized, but you’ll be expected to abstain during the stimulation cycle. Programs are blunt about this: the medications you’ll be taking affect your ovaries and liver, and alcohol adds unnecessary risk.
Birth Control Compatibility
Your current contraception method matters more than you might expect. Birth control pills, the patch, the NuvaRing, and most IUDs (both hormonal and non-hormonal) are generally compatible with egg donation. If you have a hormonal IUD like Mirena or Skyla, the clinic will run tests to see how it’s affecting your hormone levels. Depending on results, you may cycle with it in place or have it temporarily removed.
Two forms of birth control will delay or block your ability to donate: the Depo-Provera shot and contraceptive implants like Nexplanon. Both suppress ovarian function in ways that take months to reverse. If you’re using either one, you’d need to discontinue and switch to another method before you could move forward. Programs advise against stopping any birth control before you’ve actually applied and been invited to proceed.
Ovarian Reserve Testing
Once you pass the initial application, clinics assess your ovarian reserve to estimate how many eggs your ovaries are likely to produce in a stimulated cycle. This usually involves a blood test measuring a hormone called AMH and a transvaginal ultrasound to count the small follicles visible on each ovary at the start of your cycle. Higher numbers on both measures suggest a stronger response to stimulation medications, which is what clinics want in a donor. There’s no universally published minimum threshold, and each clinic sets its own cutoffs based on the results they’ve found predict successful cycles.
What the Time Commitment Looks Like
The screening phase involves two initial visits covering bloodwork, ultrasounds, genetic testing, and your psychological evaluation. If you’re approved and matched with intended parents, the active donation cycle adds roughly six clinic visits over about two weeks. During those two weeks, you’ll give yourself daily hormone injections to stimulate your ovaries, and the clinic will monitor your response with frequent blood draws and ultrasounds. The retrieval itself is a short outpatient procedure done under sedation, and most donors take one or two days to recover.
From first application to egg retrieval, the total timeline typically spans several months. Much of that is waiting: waiting for screening results, waiting for a match, and coordinating your cycle timing with the clinic’s schedule. Programs are upfront that this is not a quick process, and they look for donors who can commit to the full sequence of appointments without major scheduling conflicts.
Compensation
Egg donors in the United States are compensated for their time, discomfort, and the physical demands of the process. Typical compensation ranges from $5,000 to $10,000 per cycle, though some programs and agencies offer more, particularly for repeat donors or donors with specific traits. All medical expenses related to the donation, including medications, monitoring, and the retrieval procedure, are covered separately by the intended parents or the agency.