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Frozen Donor Eggs
Why Choose Frozen Donor Eggs?
There are several advantages to using frozen donor eggs. First, these eggs are typically already frozen, or the donor is scheduled to freeze her eggs in the immediate future. This allows for a quicker cycle for you, the recipient parent(s). In general, the eggs can be shipped to your clinic and used as quickly as the clinic can schedule your cycle. There is no waiting for the donor to be available to cycle, no chance that she won’t get any eggs and no risk that she won’t pass screening. This can save you both time and money as the recipient.
Additionally, some companies will actually reimburse their employees for the expense of frozen donor eggs. This is an advantage to using a fresh egg donor whose services are typically difficult to get reimbursed. And in the case of not having reimbursement, the expense of frozen eggs can be more tailored to your specific needs. For example, many egg banks sell eggs in groups of 6-8 minimum eggs, and most will allow you to purchase additional eggs a la carte as needed to meet your family goals. In this way, you can purchase only what you will likely use. A typical egg donor will be predicted to produce greater than 12 eggs with some producing up to 25-30. Very few recipients will use 25-30 eggs in their family planning needs, but in the case of a fresh egg donor, you will end up paying for all of those eggs in most cases. If you are hoping to have 4-5 children, that may be appropriate, but if your goals are only 1-2 children, then you may benefit from fewer eggs and therefore a less expensive process. In short, costs per treatment cycle are generally lower using frozen eggs because many of the costs are shared among more than one recipient.
Finally, many clinics still synchronize the cycle between the fresh egg donor and the recipient uterus. While this is not necessary given the vast experience with frozen embryo transfers, if your clinic is choosing to do this, it will require a certain level of coordination between you and the fresh egg donor. Alternatively, your embryo can be frozen after it is made using fresh donor eggs and the embryo can be transferred on a schedule convenient for you. This is almost always done in cases where the embryo is biopsied and tested genetically prior to embryo transfer (pre-implantation genetic testing).
Limitations To Frozen Eggs
There are some limitations to frozen eggs as well. For example, frozen donor egg banks are not required by law to report success rate data to the government the same way as fertility clinics. And although individual clinics do report their success rates with frozen donor eggs, there is no way for you, as a patient, to discern that a certain frozen egg bank is producing good quality eggs associated with pregnancy outcomes.
An additional issue is that most frozen egg banks will not provide comprehensive historical data on the past cycles of a frozen egg donor or whether prior frozen eggs from a given donor resulted in pregnancy. This makes it challenging for clinics and patients to have the same confidence in frozen donor eggs as they do in fresh egg donors where this information is readily available. Currently, according to the SART (Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology) website or the CDC website, the national average for live births using frozen eggs is lower than that of fresh eggs. In data from SART from 2018, the live birth rate from frozen eggs was 39.1 percent, while the rate from fresh eggs was 49.4 percent. However, this varies significantly from clinic to clinic depending on their individual experience and technical abilities. In fact, some programs have reported rates with frozen donor eggs that are equivalent to fresh donor eggs. Also, it is reassuring that no difference has been demonstrated in malformations between children born after vitrification of oocytes and those born through IVF in general.
Overall, the added convenience and the lower cycle cost of frozen eggs should be balanced against the lower success rate in some programs and the lower number of eggs available in order to determine the best approach for you. Choosing the right approach to egg donation is critical to your goals and success. Working with our team and reproductive endocrinologist in concert with any other members of your fertility team will help you build your family with confidence.
How We Differ From Other Egg Banks
Like many things in fertility, not all egg banks are created equal. Unfortunately, it is difficult to compare costs, guarantees, and donor selections. We believe that certain criteria make us successful. Our egg donors are all physician recruited and screened by our own reproductive endocrinologist. Each protocol, egg retrieval and freezing (vitrification) process is handled by the same team. Eighty percent of our egg thaws and transfers are also handled by the same team. We are happy to send our eggs to any partner clinic and we work with their team to ensure that proper thawing protocols are used. We keep careful data on every egg thaw outcome, and we provide that data for recipient parents with their profile access. This allows us to ensure that we are continuing to provide a top quality service to recipient parents seeking frozen eggs.
Finally, we believe that donor eggs should be accessible to all and that means that we believe in affordability. Please see our Fees Explained section to understand how we ensure low costs and partner with organizations to provide access to funding for donor egg cycles.
Fees Explained
At Fertility Lane, we understand that different intended parents have different donor requirements and financial needs. We offer many different donation options including: frozen eggs from our in-house bank, fresh shared cycles, and traditional donation cycles.
Frozen Eggs And Shared Cycles
In the past, families using egg donation to become parents matched with donors, went through a stimulation cycle, and made embryos with all of the eggs retrieved from the donor. This came at a high price point and left parents with an abundance of embryos that they would never need. At Fertility Lane, we make using donor eggs more affordable by offering cycles with frozen eggs from our in-house bank as well as shared cycles with donors that are available to match! Our frozen egg packages start at a minimum of 6 frozen eggs at $2,250/egg for a total of $13,500 for a lot of 6 frozen eggs. If your family plan includes having more than one child, additional eggs can be added to the package at $2,250/egg for a first time donor and proven donor.
If you don’t see a donor of interest to you that has frozen eggs available in our bank, we also offer shared donation cycles with any of our available donors! A shared cycle is one in which we complete an egg freeze cycle on a donor, you get a lot of 6 eggs, and we freeze the rest. This allows you to have the advantage of a directly matched donation, without the high price point. Shared donations include the cost of the donor eggs at the same price as our frozen eggs, plus an additional $5,000 to cover the donor’s travel and monitoring expenses for a total of either $18,500 for a first-time donor and proven donor.
Fertility Lane also offers egg donor packages for patients of Lane Fertility Institute! These packages include a lot of 6 eggs, the donor’s compensation and screening fees, the embryology and the embryo transfer for a total of $29,000 for a first-time frozen donor or proven frozen donor, and $34,000 for a shared cycle.
Additional Fees Explained: A frozen or shared cycle has a non-refundable agency fee of $3,000 to cover the coordination of your cycle. There is also an option to have embryo biopsy testing which costs $6,000 and includes the biopsy of up to eight embryos.
There is no agency fee for a shared or frozen cycle and embryo biopsy is $3,920.00 for up to eight embryos.
Traditional Donation
Sometimes a family plan requires using all of the eggs retrieved from the donor, this is called traditional donation. In this cycle, a family selects a donor who has no frozen eggs, and makes embryos with all eggs retrieved. When choosing a donor for a traditional donation, you are responsible for the donor’s fees. These include:
Fee Type | Cost |
|---|---|
Total Cost Of Cycle | $44,600-$49,600+ |
Embryology/Lab Fees/Transfer | $30,000 (varies by clinic) |
Donor Medications | $4,500 |
Legal | $3,000 |
Donor Insurance | $300 |
FDA Infection Disease Panel and Tox Screen | $550 x 2 |
Genetic Carrier Screening | $350 |
Donor Compensation | $5-10,000+ depending on donor experience |
Donor travel/monitoring expenses (out of town) | +/- $5,000 |
Psychological Evaluation | $500 |
Additional Traditional Donation Fees: A traditional donation cycle comes with a partially refundable agency fee of $6,000 to cover the cost of coordinating your cycle. Adding embryo biopsy is available at a cost of $3,920.00 for up to eight embryos.
What Sets Us Apart?
Second cycle with no additional agency fee
If you have used all of your normal embryos and have not achieved a successful pregnancy, we will waive our agency fee for one additional cycle.
Refundable agency fee for traditional donation cycles
If your traditional donor cycle is canceled for any reason before the donor has started injectable medication, the full agency fee and donor fee may be applied to a subsequent donor cycle. If you do not wish to choose a replacement donor, we will refund 50% of the agency fee and 100% of the donor fee. Fees for any outside services already rendered are nonrefundable.
When Payments Are Due
Frozen/Shared cycles: Agency fee of $3,000 to be paid at the time at which you request us to facilitate a match. You are welcome to preview our available donors prior to this time.
Cost of Donor Eggs $12,000+ to be paid at the time of donor selection (base package includes 6 unproven donor eggs at $2,000/egg for a total of $12,000. If more eggs are needed, they can be added for $2,000/egg for unproven donor eggs and $3,000/egg for proven donor eggs. If using a proven donor, the fee for a lot of 6 eggs is $18,000 due at time of donor selection.)
A cohort of 6 eggs is $13,500 and there is no agency fee for a shared or frozen cycle.
Embryology and transfer fees and their due dates will vary depending on which fertility clinic you’re working with.
Fresh cycle: Agency fee of $6,000 to be paid at the time at which you request us to facilitate a match. You are welcome to preview our available donors prior to this time.
Escrow fee to be paid upon donor selection.
Donor Fees to cover FDA screening, genetic testing, psychological screening, donor medications, donor travel, donor compensation, monitoring ultrasounds, and legal to be put into Escrow account at time of donor selection.
Embryology and transfer fees and their due dates will vary depending on which fertility clinic you’re working with.
Note: Costs are estimates and are subject to change.
