abstract:Egg donation is the process by which a woman provides one or several (usually 10-15) eggs (ova, oocytes) for purposes of assisted reproduction or biomedical research. For assisted reproduction purposes, egg donation typically involves the process of in vitro fertilization as the eggs are fertilized in the laboratory; more rarely, unfertilized eggs are frozen and stored for later use by the intended parents.
But the true extent of the problem is largely unknown because there are no official figures on waiting lists for sperm and eggdonation around the country or data on the number of British patients travelling abroad for treatment.