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Illinois Egg Donors
Search from among the best egg donors in Illinois, including Chicago, Bloomington-Normal, Springfield and the Quad Cities.
Donor Concierge has a network of egg donation agency partners who specialize in finding egg donors across the Prairie State of Illinois. This is a state with several large urban areas, especially Chicago and its outlying suburbs. Illinois is also home to many accredited universities and colleges, a place where many egg donor agency look to recruit donors.
We can help you find an egg donor who is the best match for your family. We can look broadly and find you an egg donor who is willing to travel to your Illinois fertility clinic to complete an egg donor cycle for you. We can also focus your search on donors who live in Illinois – from Chicago to Springfield to Champaign and across the state.
Donor Concierge has a vetted network of trusted providers and top resources for your egg donor search in Illinois.
The Benefits of Finding an Egg Donor in Illinois
Illinois is a top hub of travel, commerce, and education, representing a popular destination for Midwesterners and travelers from across the United States and globe. Many hopeful parents choose to undergo fertility treatments in Illinois thanks to its accessibility and the number of top fertility options in the state. Chicago, Illinois is renowned for many top medical practitioners, including hospitals, cutting-edge research and educational institutions, and fertility clinics. With many large cities including Chicago, Aurora, Naperville, Rockford, and many more, Illinois is also home to a large number of egg donors and egg donor agencies.
Besides the large population, many fertility practitioners, and commercial hubs, The Prairie State is also home to extremely fertility-friendly laws. Most notably, Illinois law requires infertility coverage by insurance companies and HMOs for groups of employees greater than 25. This access allows many hopeful parents in Illinois to reach their dreams of building a family through fertility treatments like IVF or Illinois egg donation.
With increased access to fertility and plenty of Illinois egg donors to choose from, Donor Concierge can help you with your Illinois egg donor search. From matching with hard-to-find egg donors in Illinois or finding egg donors of your ethnicity or heritage, our team is here to assist on your Illinois egg donor journey.
How Egg Donors Are Screened in Illinois
Illinois egg donor screening follows the requirements laid out by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and standards and guidelines provided to fertility practitioners from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). These guidelines include health screenings, mental health evaluation, infectious disease screening, medical history, and age limit.
Both the FDA and ASRM seek to ensure that the egg donation process is as safe as possible for everyone involved. Illinois egg donors are screened on this basis to ensure that they are healthy and mentally prepared to donate their eggs. For an in-depth breakdown of the Illinois egg donation process, read below!
The Donor Concierge Egg Donation Process for Intended Parents in Illinois
Step 1. Consultation and Intake
If you are hoping to work with Donor Concierge to find your Illinois egg donor, you will start with a free consultation. The goal of the consultation is for our team to get a clear picture of your fertility journey so far and your unique family-building needs, and for you to learn more about the ways Donor Concierge can help you build your family. You will share your background, what you are searching for in your Illinois egg donor, and more. This 30-minute conversation is always completely free and will help you decide if egg donation in Illinois is right for you. To begin your search with Donor Concierge, next you will complete our intake form, provide photographs, and make an initial payment.
Step 2. The Egg Donor Search Process
Post-intake, you will be assigned a Donor Concierge case manager who will act as your dedicated partner on your Illinois egg donor search. Your case manager will work with you to gain deep knowledge of your needs and preferences in the donor search. He or she will identify top egg donor candidates fitting your criteria and add them to your custom egg donor portfolio for your review. Your case manager will also work with egg donor agencies and fertility partners for any needed communications through this process. The egg donor search and review will typically take three weeks.
Step 3. Reserving Your Egg Donor
After creating a list of the best egg donors, your case manager will help you to reserve your egg donor through her egg donor agency. This will involve coordination between the egg donor agency, your Illinois fertility clinic and your fertility attorney to handle the medical and legal processes involved with egg donation. Donor Concierge has a network of Illinois fertility attorneys to help you secure your egg donor contract.
Step 4. The Egg Donation Cycle
Your egg donor will visit your fertility clinic to complete physical, genetic and psychological evaluations. After medical clearance and once all of the legal contracts are finalized, the egg donation cycle will begin. Your egg donor will begin taking medications to suppress her menstrual cycle and prepare her body for hormone injections that will stimulate her ovaries to produce multiple eggs. These hormone injections will be completed by the egg donor herself, and will stimulate her ovaries to produce multiple mature eggs, typically over 10 to 12 days. Your egg donor will be carefully monitored regularly by a fertility specialist throughout this time to ensure that the medications are working properly and make any needed adjustments.
When the eggs have reached the desired level of maturation, the egg donor will take a “trigger” shot of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), signaling the ovaries to release the eggs, in order for retrieval to take place. The eggs will then be retrieved approximately 36 hours later. The egg donor will be mildly sedated for the egg retrieval procedure.
First, the doctor will locate the mature eggs using an ultrasound wand. Then, the mature eggs will be gently extracted. The eggs will be combined in a petri dish with sperm so that fertilization can occur. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) may be performed instead at this stage, in order to directly penetrate the egg with the sperm and increase the chances of fertilization.
If you are undergoing a fresh egg donor cycle, the recipient’s uterus will be prepared to receive the fertilized embryo. However, many people choose to have what’s called a frozen embryo transfer, which is when the embryo is frozen five days after fertilization and transferred to the uterus at a later date.
How to Find an Egg Donor Agency in Illinois
We know that the egg donor agency search can be difficult on your own. To find an egg donor agency in Illinois, the process can be overwhelming. Some of the most common considerations that intended parents have to think about when considering Illinois egg donor agencies include:
- How long has the agency been in business?
- How many egg donors do they have available?
- Do they have the kind of egg donors I am looking for?
Searching every Illinois egg donor agency for your perfect donor is a lot for anyone to handle, and it can be disheartening when all the work you are putting in doesn’t result in a match. That’s where Donor Concierge can help. Our team uses your criteria and our expert knowledge and proprietary tools to find wonderful egg donor candidates who match your criteria. We work with hundreds of national and Illinois egg donor agencies so that you get the benefits of a wide egg donor candidate pool, without the hours of stress.
Navigating Egg Donor Costs in Illinois
There are a few factors that typically impact the costs of egg donation. Egg donation has multiple moving parts, including location, donor choice, type of donation, different fertility clinics and more, which all may impact associated costs. Many parents can expect the egg donation process to cost between $30,000 and $65,000, depending on:
- Egg donor agency fees
- Egg donor compensation
- Costs for medical processes, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), ICSI, and frozen embryo transfer
- Legal fees
- Travel and other expenses
We know that navigating these moving parts and their costs can be challenging. There are options available to help make the egg donation process easier to afford, including fertility treatment loans and grants, which our team can help refer you to.
Finding an Egg Donor in Illinois
Illinois is a wonderful place for egg donation, a place where the melting pot of ethnic diversity is celebrated and promoted. Illinois has a population of nearly 13 million, with Chicago being one of the largest cities in the US. This makes Chicago an excellent choice to find an egg donor - a culturally diverse and vibrant city with an abundance of fertility clinics and egg donor agencies. Nearby cities such as Springfield or Rockford may also be home to your Illinois egg donor, who can travel to visit your clinic for your cycle. Agencies recruit educated egg donors from across Illinois from urban areas and academic institutions like Northwestern University, Loyola, and the University of Chicago. We've also found that Chicago is a good place to search for hard-to-find donors, those that will help you create the baby you've always wanted.
Egg Donation FAQs
The decision between doing a fresh donor cycle, where the donor completes an IVF cycle on your behalf and all of the eggs belong to you, or purchasing previously frozen eggs from a donor egg bank, should be discussed with your fertility doctor so that you can make the best decision for your family. For hopeful parents who want more than one child using the same donor, a frozen egg bank may not have the best options and finding a donor for a fresh donor egg cycle may be preferred. However, frozen donor egg costs may be more suitable for your financial situation.
Unfortunately, nothing is certain. But donor egg IVF has a much higher success rate than if an older woman uses her own eggs. The success rate for egg donation is dependent on many things – the donor’s fertility levels, her age, sperm health and uterine receptivity. When you are talking with your Illinois fertility clinic, ask what criteria they are looking for in an egg donor so that you can maximize your chances of success.
Egg donation helps many different types of people and families have a child. Some of the most common situations that call for the use of donor eggs include:
- Female infertility issues related to poor ovarian reserve, early menopause, advanced maternal age, or ovaries damaged by cancer treatments
- Same-sex male couples
- Single men who wish to become fathers.
According to the preliminary 2020 report from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART), 44.6% of cycles involving fresh donor eggs resulted in a live birth, with 41.1% of frozen cycles resulting in a live birth.
Telling family and friends that you’re doing a donor egg cycle can be daunting. This is entirely your decision and while it may feel awkward, there is no shame in creating your family in a different way. Be prepared to provide resources around the topic and learn ahead of time what awkward questions people may have. You’ll be armed with the answers and will be equipped to help change the minds of people who may not have had any exposure to third-party fertility.
Bonding with their baby is a common fear that many hopeful parents have when they embark on a donor egg IVF cycle. There are many excellent resources to help guide you during this process and we encourage you to find an Illinois fertility therapist to talk through your feelings and fears.
Find local fertility resources in Illinois:
Fertility Clinics
Practice Director: Vishvanath C. Karande, M.D.
1585 North Barrington Road Doctors Building Two, Suite 406 Hoffman Estates, IL 60169
(847) 884-8884Practice Director: Ralph R. Kazer, M.D., Medical Director: Edmond Confino, M.D.
NMH/Arkes Family Pavilion Suite 1845 676 N Saint Clair Chicago IL 60611
(312) 908-8244Practice Director: Charles E. Miller, M.D
1900 E. Golf Rd Suite L125 Schaumburg, IL 60173
(630) 428-2229Dr. Brian Kaplan, Dr. Allison K. Rodgers, Dr. Elie Hobeika, Jennifer Hirshfeld-Cytron, MD
900 N. Kingsbury Suite RW6 Chicago , IL 60610
(312) 222-8230Practice Director: W. Paul Dmowski, M.D., Ph.D.
2425 W 22nd St Ste 200 Oak Brook, IL 60523
(630) 954-0054Practice Director: John Rapisarda, M.D.
Highland Park Hospital 767 Park Avenue West, Suite B400 Highland Park, Illinois 60035
(847) 266-3535
Reproductive Attorneys
Julie M. Tavoso, Esq.
123 E. Ogden Ave., Ste. 101A Hinsdale, Illinois 60521
Mental Health Professionals
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