Directed Donations

If you've been invited to give sperm or eggs to a family trying to conceive, Main Line Fertility is here to support you through every step of the directed donation process.

If you are an individual under the age of 40, without any known fertility challenges, and you know a family who is trying to conceive, you may want to give a directed donation to help that family on their fertility journey.

Giving your genetic material is an altruistic gift; however, it is important that you and the family who you will be donating to have agreed upon the expectations for your relationship and any relationship to the child. You should also be prepared to deal with a sometimes frustrating court system when you are relinquishing your legal rights to any child born with your genetic material.

Before you provide your sample, you must refrain from any sexual activity including masturbation for 2 to 3 days prior to donation. (Longer or shorter periods of abstinence may result in abnormal results.)

You will give your sperm sample at Main Line for via masturbation on-site in our laboratory collection room. The room is equipped with a chair/bed, urinal, sink, and TV/VCR. A limited collection of sexually explicit material is provided in the collection room, or you are welcome to use your own smartphone. (Note: No lubricants or condoms are allowed.)

When you've given your sample, you'll get a complete semen work-up includes concentration (recorded in millions per milliliter), motility (to determine how many sperm are moving in the sample), and morphology (% of normally shaped sperm).

Your sperm will either be used immediately for a fertility procedure or cryopreserved (frozen) for future use.

If you are donating eggs for immediate use, you will work with Main Line Fertility to coordinate your cycle with the cycle of the person who will be carrying the pregnancy.

Over a period of 9-12 days, we will stimulate your ovaries with self-administered injections. These injections utilize a thin needle (similar to what a diabetic might use for insulin shots) and are given subcutaneously, which means below the skin (as opposed to in the muscle). You will also have approximately five to seven early morning monitoring appointments to assess whether the injections are working.

Once the monitoring shows that the egg maturing process has worked, you will come to our on-site surgery center where your doctor will gently guide a needle attached to a catheter through your vaginal wall to collect your eggs. The painless procedure will take 10-20 minutes and you will be under twilight anesthesia. Most patients don't even remember the procedure, and you may bring a partner or friend with you if you'd like. There are no stitches or scars and most patients return to work the following day.

Your eggs will then be combined with sperm to create the embryos that will either be inserted into the person carrying the pregnancy or cryopreserved for a future pregnancy.

For a family trying to conceive, directed donations (i.e. using a known donor) can save them money over purchasing eggs or sperm from a cryobank. However, the family is still responsible for all of the costs of extraction, testing, and storage of genetic material. The family is also responsible for any legal fees that may be incurred as part of the process of obtaining their legal rights as parents.