Since its establishment in 1983, the Reproductive Science Center of the San Francisco Bay Area has created one of the country's most experienced and highly successful egg donor programs. RSC's clinical pregnancy rates of 60 percent in donor cycles, 10 percent above the national average, one of the reasons patients from throughout the globe travel to participate in RSC's egg donation program.
RSC has is also exceptional in offering an in-house egg donor program. RSC's donor database currently contains the profiles of approximately 50 egg donors, who are ready to be selected by interested recipients who wish to undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF). All egg donations in which an RSC Program Egg Donor is selected are anonymous.
Egg donation has brought new hope and joy to thousands of families who once thought they might be unable to have biological children of their own. Egg donation pregnancies carry the same successes and risks as all IVF and embryo transfer pregnancies.
As women enter their late 30s and early 40s, there is a natural decline in the function of their ovaries, which causes decreased egg quality, which increases the need to use donor eggs. Some women are unable to use their own eggs because they have a high risk of passing on life-threatening genetic disease.
In donation, an egg from a fertile woman is donated to an infertile woman for use with IVF, in which the donor's eggs are fertilized with the father's sperm. The resulting embryos are transferred to the recipient mother's uterus. The recipient mother will be the birth mother on record.
Egg donation is a sophisticated and carefully coordinated procedure that follows many of the steps of the IVF process. Medications and ultrasound monitoring synchronize both donor and recipient cycles.
Financing Egg Donation
Another benefit of RSC's program is its affordable financial aid offerings.
Donor Screening Process
Donors must complete a lengthy screening process. After being screened and chosen by a recipient, the actual process of egg donation takes five weeks. Rachael Dupuis, RSC Donor Case Coordinator, said "there's a lot of juggling to coordinate cycles, making sure everybody is ready," she said. Read more... RSC Donor Screening
Egg Donor Patient Stories
Each pregnancy that occurs at RSC has a unique story behind it. Here are a few stories of people whose lives were forever at RSC.
Tracy
Tracy, a forty-two year old professional, was a single woman who lost her naturally conceived baby thirty-seven weeks into the pregnancy. "I had never been married, and the realization hit me that I wasn't getting any younger, and my window of opportunity to have children was getting smaller and smaller..." Link to new page (below: Creating Life: The Stories Behind Egg Donation at RSC)
Sarah
For Sarah, a young donor, the motivation to help create life grew from a tragedy in her own family. Sarah’s mother had been prepared to have a baby for Sarah’s aunt through surrogacy when her aunt passed away at the age of thirty-four. “My mom never got the chance to do it, so I went ahead and did it for other people to follow that dream…” Link to new page (below: Creating Life: The Stories Behind Egg Donation at RSC)
Gloria
Gloria, a young Asian woman, chose to donate at RSC so she could give back to people around the Bay Area, where she grew up. She said, “Other clinics I researched just didn’t feel right …” Link to new page (below: Creating Life: The Stories Behind Egg Donation at RSC)
Read more about people who have participated in the RSC donor program….
