What does egg donation mean?  Participating in egg donation - egg donation recipients (of donor eggs) and egg donors need to know as much as they can about this special fertility treatment.  For starters - the egg donation definition.

Egg donation is the process by which a woman provides one or more eggs (or ova or ocytes) for purposes of assisted reproduction or biomedical research.  

The process of taking eggs from an egg donor, fertilising these donor eggs with the male partner's sperm in the laboratory dish and transferring the resulting embryo.

A form of collaborative reproduction - sometimes compared to sperm donation, but an egg donation process involved more commitment and time for the egg donor and more physical involvement.  
A process in which a woman may donate eggs through in vitro fertilization to another woman.  When an egg donor provides her donor eggs to help an infertile woman.  The egg donor's ovaries are stimulated by drugs to produce extra eggs, which are retrieved during the egg donation process. 
The act of donating eggs to someone else for use in attempting pregnancy through in vitro fertilization to persons who need donor eggs to conceive.

When a female donates her egg(s) for another female to use via IVF because she either lacks eggs, has poor quality eggs, is genetically predisposed to a problematic pregnancy or unhealthy child.

For women who lack good quality eggs, have premature ovarian failure or do not want to risk passing on a known genetic disease.  The process takes eggs, usually from a younger woman - in fertile years, fertilizes them with the male gametes, known as sperm and places them into the patient's uterine lining.  This is usually after the fertilised egg has grown to what is known as a blastocycte - a fertilised egg cell that has more cells than can be counted. 

As women age their ovaries ability to produce good quality eggs (ovarian reserve) begins to diminish.  Using donated eggs enables woman experiencing difficulties the chance to become pregnant and carry an egg donation pregnancy to have a baby through egg donation.  This provides immense hope and is considered a saving grace for thousands of people who would otherwise not be able to conceive.

Both egg donors and recipients of donor eggs remain anonymous and confidential.  Generally egg donation recipients consider woman who have similar physical traits, but may consider other traits - such as intelligence levels and/ or personality traits.  

More information on egg donation can be obtained from baby2mom Egg Donation Agency on www.baby2mom.co.za a reputable and worldclass egg donor agency, assisting people worldwide to conceive through South African egg donation. 

The number of eggs donated can be any thing from zero to over 30.  All egg donors respond differently to the egg donation treatment and accordingly no two egg donors will be the same.  Similarly no two eggs will be the same. 

Egg donation is for the purposes of aiding conception, not for any research.
Donor eggs may actually be fertilised by donor sperm as well - depending on the fertility of the male involved or if there is even a male involved in the egg donation baby.
Egg donation recipients are offered counselling to ensure that they understand the process of receiving donor eggs - not their gene material.

In an effort to explain and facilitate an improved understanding of the egg donation process and program, an egg donation definition as described above gives some elaboration on what exactly an egg donation program entails.