If you need donor eggs to have your family, there’s nothing more rewarding for us than finding you a great egg donor match.
It’s why we invest a great deal of time and care in donor matching and offer a personal egg donor matching service, so you can feel excited and confident about starting your treatment.
Because all of our egg donors are from our own donor programme, we know each of them personally. It gives us – and you – invaluable insight when it comes to finding you your ideal egg donor match.
Here’s how our personal matching service works, to help you understand the process:
Step 1: Matching physical traits
Donor matching begins as soon as you decide to start treatment, so you have plenty of time in advance to consider your donor choices.
We’ll start off by asking you what sort of physical characteristics you’d like your egg donor to have. You might want her to look like you – most patients do choose a donor that has a similar appearance.
We’ll look at your characteristics – such as your build, eye and hair colour and height – and initially select at least two donors from our donor programme who are a close match. Or we’ll match based on any other physical traits you’re looking for – it’s entirely your personal choice.
Step 2: Personality match
Choosing your egg donor involves much more than just a physical match however. It’s all about the emotional connection too.
You’ll be sent the full donor profiles of our initial selections, so you can get to know the very special and generous women who donate to us.
Our egg donor profiles are very detailed. Although we can’t provide any photographs of our egg donors – all donors and recipient patients are anonymous to each other – we do the next best thing and give you as much information as we can, including personal notes written by the donor herself.
Egg donor profiles contain:
A pen picture
A pen picture is the story of your donor, in her own words. It’s where she tells you all about herself and her life, whether she has any family, her upbringing, outlook and what sort of person she is.
She’ll explain why she wanted to donate eggs, and her hopes for your successful treatment. The pen picture is one of the most valuable parts of a donor’s profile for our patients.
Goodwill message to your child
As an extra personal touch, all of our donors also write a message to any child you have. This is intended to be shown to your child one day. The donor may talk about how happy she is to have helped your child to be born, and that she would very much welcome contact one day, if your child chooses to trace her via the HFEA and wants to get in touch.
The goodwill message really helps when it comes to explaining to your child how they came to be born, as you can give them a personal note from their donor as well as all the other information in the donor profile.
Extended personal details
Egg donor profiles also expand on the career and education history of your donor, hobbies and interests and family background - all the little but important details that play a part in deciding which egg donor is right for you.
Step 3: Final donor selection
If you’re unsure about which donor to choose from the options we send you, we are here to help. Remember we know our donors very well, so we can give you added personal insight.
If you’re not sure if any of the donors are exactly right, we’ll look through our donor bank for more options for you.
It’s not unusual for patients to prioritise different donor characteristics once the matching process starts, as this is when you get a real understanding of what’s most important to you.
It’s absolutely vital to us that you are completely happy with your egg donor choice, so you can take as much time as needed to find your ideal match. We will be in touch with you every step of the way, to help make the process of choosing your donor as easy as we can for you.
Start treatment with donor eggs with Manchester Fertility
If you need an egg donor and would like to explore treatment with us, get started by contacting Liz Johnson from our dedicated Donation Team on 0161 300 2737. Or book a consultation online, where you can also arrange a free 1-2-1 if you prefer.
At your free 1-2-1 we will talk you through how treatment with donor eggs works, donor matching and the cost-effective fresh or frozen donor eggs treatment packages we offer.
You can also meet some of our patients who’ve welcomed their new babies thanks to our egg donors here.
Last updated: 22nd August 2019
