Egg donation is usually done for three main reasons. The fist is for women who enter early menopause and thus have no eggs. The second is for women who repeatedly have bad quality eggs or cannot develop an embryo despite treatment. And the third and most ethically argued reasons is in women who have entered menopause and are old. In these women, infertility treatment followed by pregnancy could have very serious complications. Infertility treatment after the age of 50 is ethically not accepted.

It is a fact that all over the world there is a shortage of egg donors for egg donation. The donors are either young and healthy women selling their eggs or women who are also undergoing infertility treatment and would like to share their eggs with women of similar fate. Success in treatments with egg donation is usually higher when compared to women using their own eggs during the treatment.

The fact that the woman under going the treatment is in menopause does not change the treatment. The eggs taken from an egg donor are fertilised using the sperm of the husband and then transferred into the woman’s uterus. Thus the woman gives birth to a child that does not carry her genetic information. However, psychological tests have shown that babies born after egg donation are no different than normal babies with regards family ties and relations with the mother.

In order for egg donation to take place first an egg donor must be found and the donor must be prepared. At the same time the recipient is also prepared. During the preparation of the recipient hormones in the form of pills or adhesive tapes on the skin are used. In this way the intrauteral lining is thickened and thus prepared to accept the embryos. Once the eggs are taken from the donor they are fertilised with the sperms of the husband and transferred to the recipient on the 2^nd or 3^rd day.