Choosing an egg donor is one of the most personal and meaningful decisions you’ll make on your path to parenthood. It’s natural to feel both excited and overwhelmed when browsing donor profiles and wondering how to find someone who feels right for your family.
The good news is that there’s no single “correct” way to choose. What matters most is finding a donor who aligns with your values, preferences, and vision for your family. This guide walks you through the key factors to consider, helping you approach this decision with clarity and confidence.
Understanding What Egg Donor Profiles Include
Before diving into your search, it helps to know what information is typically available in an egg donor database. Most profiles include physical characteristics such as height, weight, eye colour, hair colour, and skin tone, along with ethnic and cultural background information. You’ll also find educational history and career details, personal interests, hobbies, and talents, a personal statement or essay explaining why the donor wants to help, family medical history spanning multiple generations, and photos from childhood or adulthood depending on the agency.
At Fertility Match, we work to ensure our donor profiles are comprehensive enough to help you make an informed decision while respecting the dignity and privacy of our donors.
Physical Characteristics: Finding Resemblance
Many intended parents hope their child will share some physical resemblance to their family. Looking for donors with similar eye colour, hair colour and texture, height, skin tone, or facial features can help create that sense of connection.
Keep in mind that genetics are complex. Even with a donor who closely matches your physical characteristics, there’s no guarantee your child will look exactly like you—just as biological children don’t always resemble their parents. Focus on finding characteristics that feel meaningful to you rather than seeking a perfect match.
If ethnic or cultural heritage is important to your family, you can search for donors who share that background. Be aware that finding donors from certain ethnic groups may take longer, so building in extra time for your search can reduce stress.
Health and Medical History: The Foundation of Your Decision
A donor’s health profile is arguably the most important factor in your selection. All donors in reputable programs undergo thorough medical screening to ensure they meet health requirements.
What Medical Screening Includes
Medical screening typically covers a physical examination and reproductive health assessment, blood tests measuring hormone levels like AMH, FSH, and estrogen, infectious disease testing for HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis, and other conditions, ovarian reserve testing through ultrasound to count antral follicles, and review of personal and family medical history going back at least three generations.
Understanding Genetic Carrier Screening
Genetic carrier screening has become standard practice in egg donation. This testing examines hundreds of genes to identify whether the donor carries variants associated with recessive genetic conditions such as cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy, Tay-Sachs disease, sickle cell disease, and thalassemia.
Being a carrier doesn’t mean the donor has a condition—it means she carries one copy of a gene variant. For recessive conditions, a child would need to inherit the same variant from both the egg donor and the sperm provider to be affected.
That’s why it’s essential to cross-reference the donor’s carrier screening results with the sperm provider’s results. If both parties carry the same variant, your fertility clinic can discuss options including choosing a different donor, using preimplantation genetic testing (PGT-M) to screen embryos, or understanding the actual risk level with a genetic counsellor.
At Fertility Match, our Elite Assurance program ensures genetic compatibility between donors and intended parents, giving you peace of mind that your match is genetically safe.
Education, Career, and Intelligence
Some intended parents place high value on a donor’s educational background, career achievements, or evidence of intellectual curiosity. Donor profiles typically include details about degrees earned, schools attended, professional accomplishments, and academic performance.
While there’s ongoing debate about how much genetics versus environment shapes intelligence and achievement, many parents feel a connection to donors whose educational journey or career path resonates with their own values.
Consider what truly matters to you. Is it the specific degree or university? Or is it evidence of curiosity, determination, and a love of learning? A donor who pursued trades training with excellence may demonstrate the same qualities you admire in someone with a graduate degree.
Personality, Interests, and Values
Reading a donor’s personal statement and learning about her hobbies, interests, and values can help you feel a deeper connection. Some parents are drawn to donors who share their passions—whether that’s athletics, music, art, travel, or community service.
The personal essay often reveals the donor’s motivations for helping others build families. Many intended parents find it meaningful to understand why the donor chose this path and what she hopes for the families she helps create.
You might also consider personality traits. Is she described as outgoing or introspective? Creative or analytical? Adventurous or steady? While personality is shaped by both genetics and environment, some parents feel more comfortable choosing a donor whose temperament seems compatible with their own family.
Known, Semi-Anonymous, or Anonymous Donation
One of the most significant decisions you’ll make is how much contact you want with your donor, both now and in the future. Understanding your options helps you find a donor whose preferences align with yours.
Anonymous Donation
In fully anonymous arrangements, the donor and intended parents don’t exchange identifying information. You’ll have access to the donor’s profile information, but not her name, contact details, or identifying photos.
Semi-Anonymous or Open-ID Donation
Semi-anonymous donation means the donor agrees to allow the donor-conceived child to access identifying information when they reach adulthood, typically at age 18. This arrangement respects privacy during the child’s upbringing while honouring the growing recognition that many donor-conceived individuals want to know their genetic origins.
At Fertility Match, all of our egg donors are willing to be contacted by any children born from their donation once those children turn 18. This reflects our commitment to the wellbeing of donor-conceived people and aligns with best practices in the field.
Known Donation
Known donation involves someone you already know—a friend, family member, or someone you’ve connected with who is willing to donate eggs directly to you. Known donation can offer more information and the potential for an ongoing relationship, but it also requires careful navigation of boundaries and expectations.
Whatever arrangement you choose, make sure it’s clearly outlined in your legal agreement so everyone’s rights and expectations are protected.
First-Time vs. Proven Donors
You may notice that some donors are described as “proven” or “repeat” donors, meaning they’ve successfully completed one or more donation cycles previously.
Benefits of Proven Donors
Working with a proven donor offers certain advantages. You can often access information about previous cycle outcomes, including how many eggs were retrieved and whether pregnancies resulted. Much of the donor’s medical screening may already be complete, potentially saving time. There’s also some reassurance in knowing the donor has successfully navigated the process before.
First-Time Donors Are Equally Valuable
However, being a first-time donor doesn’t indicate lower quality. Every proven donor was once a first-time donor, and many first-time donors have excellent outcomes. Egg quality depends more on the donor’s age, health, and ovarian reserve than on whether she’s donated before.
Don’t rule out first-time donors simply because they lack a track record. The screening process ensures all donors meet the same rigorous standards regardless of experience.
Fresh vs. Frozen Eggs
You may also need to decide whether to use fresh or frozen donor eggs. Each option has considerations worth understanding.
Fresh Egg Donation
With fresh donation, the donor undergoes ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval coordinated with your treatment cycle. The eggs are fertilized shortly after retrieval. Fresh cycles require more coordination and timing but may offer slightly higher success rates in some cases.
Frozen Egg Banks
Frozen donor eggs are retrieved and vitrified (frozen) before you select them. This offers greater flexibility in timing and often a wider selection of immediately available donors. Advances in freezing technology have made frozen eggs increasingly successful, with outcomes approaching those of fresh cycles.
Your fertility clinic can help you understand which option makes more sense for your situation.
Creating Your Priority List
With so many factors to consider, it helps to create a prioritized list before you begin searching. Sit down with your partner if applicable and discuss which characteristics are most important to you.
Separate your criteria into non-negotiables, meaning factors you won’t compromise on, and preferences, meaning factors you’d like but can be flexible about. For example, you might decide that comprehensive genetic screening and willingness for future contact are non-negotiable, while specific eye colour is a preference.
Being clear about your priorities helps narrow your search and prevents decision fatigue when reviewing many profiles.
Trusting Your Instincts
After considering all the practical factors, many intended parents find that choosing a donor ultimately comes down to intuition. You might read a donor’s personal essay and feel an immediate connection. Or you might find yourself returning to one profile again and again.
Trust that feeling. While data and screening results matter, the sense that someone “feels right” for your family is meaningful too. Many parents describe looking at their child and feeling grateful they chose the donor they did—not because of any specific characteristic, but because of an intangible sense of rightness.
Working with Your Agency
Navigating egg donor selection doesn’t have to feel overwhelming when you have the right support. Your fertility consultant can help you understand what to look for, answer questions about specific donors, facilitate communication, and guide you through the matching process.
At Fertility Match, we believe in treating both donors and intended parents with respect, support, and transparency. Our team includes people who have personal experience with fertility challenges, so we understand what you’re going through.
Questions to Ask Before Choosing
Before finalizing your donor selection, make sure you have answers to these important questions. Ask about the donor’s complete medical and genetic screening results and whether her carrier screening has been cross-referenced with the sperm provider’s results. Find out what her preferences are regarding future contact and whether she’s a first-time or proven donor. If she’s a repeat donor, ask about her previous cycle outcomes. Understand what support the agency provides throughout the matching and treatment process and what legal agreements will be in place.
Taking the Next Step
Choosing an egg donor is a profound decision, but it doesn’t have to be a stressful one. With clear priorities, comprehensive information, and professional support, you can find a donor who feels right for your family.
Ready to begin your search? Browse our egg donor database to view profiles of screened, qualified donors who are ready to help families like yours. If you have questions or want guidance on what to look for, contact our team for a free consultation.
You can also read success stories from intended parents who have built their families through egg donation to see how others navigated this journey.
