Who it is for
Premature ovarian insufficiency, early menopause, repeated IVF failure with one's own eggs, age-related decline in egg quality, a genetic condition carried by the mother, ovaries removed or destroyed by treatment.
What the donor goes through
This is not a minor procedure, and presenting it as one is dishonest. The donor follows exactly the first half of an IVF cycle: ten to twelve days of daily injections, three to five scans with blood tests, then egg collection under anaesthetic. It costs her several half-days and a few days of tiredness.
Risks are low but real: hyperstimulation, bleeding, infection, ovarian torsion. Countries that regulate donation seriously require written information, a cooling-off period, revocable consent and follow-up after collection. Where donation is heavily paid, those safeguards are often thinner and the donor population more precarious.
For the recipient
The path is light by comparison: oestrogen then progesterone to prepare the endometrium, a check scan, and transfer. No stimulation, no collection, no anaesthetic.
Results, and what they mean
Around 40 to 50 % pregnancies per transfer. The decisive figure is the age of the donor, not the recipient: a woman of 45 receiving eggs from a woman of 25 has the chances of a 25-year-old, while keeping the obstetric risks of her own age — hypertension, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, caesarean — which are real and must be stated.
Cross-border treatment
This is the best yield in the whole field, and the most unevenly available: very long waiting lists in some countries, an organised market in others. Hence the travel. Three questions are worth asking before going: will parentage be recognised on return, what cap on families per donor applies, and what will the child be able to learn later — where donation is permanently anonymous, the answer is: nothing.