4 December 2012

Egg donation in Australia

IVF Australia logo

Written by

IVF Australia

Further to an article in the Sunraysia Daily over the weekend, IVF Australia’s Medical Director, Associate Professor Peter Illingworth, comments on the process involved in egg donation in Australia.
 
He said: “In Australia, egg donation is permitted on an altruistic basis.  That is, the act of one woman choosing to help another. While the donor’s expenses can be covered, they are not allowed to be paid for their eggs.
 
“The procedure involved in egg donation only takes around two weeks, but the preparation can be a bit longer. A woman considering donating her eggs may have to have blood tests and undergo counselling to check they are suitable and understand what is involved beforehand.
 
“If a woman chooses to go ahead, she will have drugs to stimulate more eggs to grow than would normally be the case, and then have a procedure, usually under a light anaesthetic, to have the eggs collected from her.
 
“IVF on the whole is a very safe thing to do, the big issue being how the donor will feel about it in the long term and how her family will feel about it in the long term too. The ideal egg donor is under the age of 35, and a woman who already has her own children, so that she can give the eggs away but focus all her love and attention on them.”

For further information or an interview with A/Prof Illingworth, Medical Director IVF Australia, please contact Hayley Dodman on 0420 958 296.

Share this