Do you need an egg donor and a sperm donor to conceive? Many same-sex couples and single women find themselves needing ‘double donation’ to have their families, for a number of reasons.
You may use both a sperm donor and an egg donor in your fertility treatment because:
- You’re an older woman who wants to try for a baby – In this case, you may be advised that donor eggs give you a better chance of pregnancy
- You may have fertility issues, such as premature menopause or premature ovarian failure.
- You may have genetic or hereditary issues in your family on the maternal side, which you don’t want to risk passing onto a child.
Fertility treatment using your partner’s eggs: Reciprocal IVF
If you’re in a female same-sex partnership, you could have Reciprocal or Partner IVF treatment, where one of you undergoes IVF with donor sperm whilst the other has the embryo transfer, carries the baby and gives birth. It allows both of you to be physically involved in fertility treatment and the creation of your family. One partner's eggs will be collected and combined with donor sperm in our state-of-the-art laboratory. The resulting embryo will then be implanted into the other partner's uterus under ultrasound guidance, allowing them to carry the pregnancy to term. While this treatment follows a similar treatment pathway to those using double donation with one partner acting as the donor, most clinics would not refer to this as ‘double donation’. You can find out more about reciprocal IVF on our treatment page.
Fertility treatment using both Manchester Fertility sperm and egg donors
At Manchester Fertility, we’re one of the few fertility clinics in the UK that specialise in helping you conceive through double donation. We have in-house donor banks, so you have access to our identifiable and traceable UK sperm and egg donors. We make it easy for you to choose your donor from our egg or sperm donor bank, giving you a cost-effective way to achieve pregnancy, meaning you can focus on planning for your family.
Choosing your sperm and egg donors
Using double donation means you can specify what you’d like both your egg and sperm donors to look like. Many women like to choose an egg donor who looks like them, matching features such as hair colour, eye colour, skin tone or hair texture, but you don’t have to. You may want one donor to look like you, and the other to have specific physical and personality traits you admire. Whoever your ‘ideal donor’ is, we’ll have the match for you. Our successful sperm and egg donor banks offer an extensive range of donors from all professions, personalities and ethnicities.
Our dedicated Donation Team will support you in your choices. We get to know all our donors well, so we can give you unique insight when choosing your donors. All our donors write detailed profiles so you can learn about them, including a goodwill message. Our BuySperm platform allows patients to browse our sperm donor profiles and read messages from the donors themselves so you can find a donor you connect with beyond the physical traits
“I am very much hoping that you’re having a great life and that you’ve had a wonderful childhood I’m sure that your parent/s love you very much given the extraordinary lengths they’ve gone through to bring you into this world. I’m very delighted to have helped in this process albeit in only a small way…”
Our egg donors are all healthy, fertile women and our sperm donors are men tested for the highest quality sperm to maximise your chances of pregnancy. All our donors are traceable and identifiable to any children you have when the child turns 18. They have also had implications counselling, so they are donating from an altruistic place because they fully understand the impact of donation and are happy to be contacted by a donor-conceived child in the future.
The treatment process using donor eggs & sperm
When you have picked your donors, it’s time for you to start treatment. Eggs from your chosen donor will be fertilised in our state-of-the-art laboratory, using sperm from the donor you’ve also chosen. Based on your personalised treatment plan, we’ll help your body to prepare to receive the resulting embryo, using fertility medication to thicken the lining of your womb, ready for pregnancy.
Our expert embryologists will select the best quality embryo to be transferred at the optimum time, and you’ll be able to take a pregnancy test around two weeks later. Any remaining embryos can be frozen by us for future use to grow your family.
At Manchester Fertility, we fully support your journey to parenthood. Every patient using double donation to conceive is entitled to complimentary counselling sessions. These sessions help to support you throughout your treatment journey. You will also have access to our patient support app Amelya, to allow you to manage your appointments, get medication reminders and connect with our team privately with the chat function, all in one place.
Funding treatment with donor eggs & sperm
In addition to traditional funding methods, we also offer the UK’s first IVF with donor eggs refund plan, which gives you up to three cycles of treatment with donor eggs with a money-back guarantee. This plan doesn’t include treatment with donor sperm, but we also have other packages available through Access Fertility that could help fund your entire treatment cycle. You can find more information about our Access packages on our pricing page.
Start your family with the help of sperm and egg donation
"It is impossible to put in to words our gratitude for Manchester Fertility's help and for blessing us with such a special gift. We will be eternally grateful for such a supportive and smooth experience."
We specialise in helping same-sex couples and lesbian women to conceive through tailored fertility treatments - learn more about the women we’ve helped on our testimonials page.
Or Speak to our friendly dedicated Donation Team to start your journey to a family today on 0161 300 2737 or self-refer here, you don’t need a GP referral.
Last updated: 6th August 2025
