Egg Donor Compensation at CHR

Egg Donor Compensation Structure for CHR's Donor Egg Programs

CHR’s egg donor programs, both the Standard Donor Egg Programs and EcoDEP (our frozen donor egg program), are run on an innovative egg donor compensation structure that is transparent and fair to both egg donors and recipients. Egg donors are reimbursed based on the number of eggs they produce, with a potential bonus. The egg donor compensation at CHR is up to $10,000, as detailed in the table below.

In contrast, in a typical egg donor agency and most fertility centers with an egg donor program, donors typically receive a flat fee of $5,000 – $10,000, regardless of the number of eggs they produce.

Considerable ethical concerns exist over the commercial trade of human eggs/oocytes. Because of these concerns, we do not derive profit from managing the egg donation process with donors and recipients. Instead, CHR offers donor-matching services to our patients as an un-reimbursed courtesy. We, therefore, price the anonymous exchange of eggs between recipients and donors in our program at cost, with no profit margin.

What Egg Donors Need to Know

Egg donors who donate eggs at CHR are guaranteed $10,000 for a donation cycle. In CHR's program, donors can increase their likelihood of higher compensation by strictly adhering to the medication regimen our clinical team provides. Good medication adherence is known to increase the chance that more mature eggs are ready at the time of egg retrieval. This is a unique structure among egg donor programs that provides much-needed fairness and transparency.

Donors will be informed of the number of mature oocytes they produce on the day after egg retrieval. We wait until the day after, because some oocytes that are immature at retrieval may still mature in the lab overnight. Donors receive compensation for donating eggs after they complete the post-cycle checkup.

Apart from the egg donor compensation, we take out an insurance policy for egg donors for any additional medical expenses, so donors don’t have to use their own insurance or pay for medical care as a result of their donation.

Potential Additional Compensation for Egg Donors

CHR has introduced the new high-demand donor (HDD) option, which is already widely used by many donor agencies and donor egg banks. The Center of Human Reproduction may designate egg donors as HDDs based on special educational or other achievements or qualities and previous successful donor IVF cycles. If you are designated as an HDD by CHR, you may choose to charge an additional fee of $1,000 or $2,000.

Background

CHR’s egg donor compensation structure was developed based on two developments. One was the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)’s decision to withdraw its previous recommendation about how much IVF centers in the United States should pay egg donors, following a class-action lawsuit.1 The other is the rapid growth of frozen egg banks, which charge recipients a per-egg fee, rather than a set fee for an entire egg donation cycle. We developed the new egg donor payment structure (and recipient fee schedule on the flip side) to offer both donors and recipients a fairer egg donation program. For more information about how the fee structure was developed, please see this page.

Application for the Egg Donation Process

The first step is to submit an egg donor application to become an egg donor. In addition to the online application, followed by multiple interviews with our clinical team, there is a preliminary medical screening process. Further medical screening is only required for women who have been selected as egg donors by a woman or couple. The intended parents are typically unable to conceive with their own eggs and didn’t previously preserve eggs through egg freezing. Most of our patients using donor eggs do so because their only realistic chance at pregnancy is with donor eggs through in vitro fertilization.

Sources

American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Financial compensation of oocyte donors: an Ethics Committee opinion. Fertil Steril. 2016 Dec; 106(7). Accessed August 31, 2020.