Donor Eggs (Oocytes)

At the Fertility Institute of Hawaii, we offer a comprehensive donor egg program catered to each patient’s individual needs. Patients can pursue a fresh donor egg cycle, choose from frozen banked eggs, or work with a directed (known) donor of their choice. Whatever path fits your family best, we are here to guide you every step of the way.

Is Donor Egg IVF Right For You?

Egg donation in Hawaii is an option for many individuals and couples. Some of the most common reasons patients use donor eggs may include:

• Diminished ovarian reserve or age-related decline
  Egg quantity and quality naturally decline with age, though some patients experience this earlier regardless of age. Ovarian reserve is one of the first things we evaluate during a fertility workup and may point a patient toward donor eggs as a treatment option.
• Genetic conditions
  Donor eggs can help patients avoid passing on inherited genetic conditions.
• Previous IVF cycles with poor egg or embryo quality
  When prior cycles haven’t resulted in healthy embryos, donor eggs can improve success rates.
• Cancer treatment or other medical care that may cause iatrogenic infertility
  Patients who have undergone treatments causing infertility may benefit from using donor eggs if their own eggs are no longer able to achieve a pregnancy.
• LGBTQIA+ family building
  Gay male couples and other intended parents without a partner who can provide eggs often use donor eggs paired with a gestational carrier. Many of our LGBTQIA+ patients also consider using a directed (known) egg donor who may be a friend, family member, or someone else meaningful to them.
• Single parents by choice
  For those who need both an egg donor and, in some cases, a sperm donor to build their family.

Understanding Donor Egg IVF

In donor egg IVF, a donated egg is fertilized with the intended father’s or donor’s sperm before the resulting embryo is transferred to the uterus. Because egg donors are typically young adults who have completed comprehensive medical, genetic, and psychological screening, donor egg IVF is often associated with higher pregnancy and live birth rates than IVF using a patient’s own eggs, particularly for women of advanced reproductive age or those with diminished ovarian reserve. For many individuals and couples, donor egg IVF offers an opportunity to achieve pregnancy when other treatment options have been unsuccessful.

Who Are Egg Donors?

Egg donors are young, healthy, fertile women who choose to donate eggs to help individuals and couples build their families. To make the donor-egg IVF process more efficient for our patients, we established Hawaii’s first IVF egg bank: the Egg Bank of Hawaii. While the Egg Bank of Hawaii includes donors from diverse backgrounds, our unique location gives us an especially diverse donor pool, including Native Hawaiian donors. Additionally, the Fertility Institute of Hawaii collaborates with egg banks nationwide to expand donor egg options for our patients.

Two Paths for Using Donor Eggs

1. Fresh Donor Eggs ~90% cumulative live birth rate
   With a fresh cycle, your chosen donor undergoes stimulation and retrieval specifically for you, and you receive every egg from that retrieval so the pregnancy rate is exceptional. That larger yield gives over 80% of recipients additional embryos to cryopreserve for biological siblings. 

With fresh donor cycles, we fertilize eggs the same day they are retrieved, then cryopreserve the resulting embryos and use them once the recipient is ready for the transfer cycle. Because a fresh cycle requires more coordination, this treatment option may take longer than frozen donor egg options. At FIH, we can match you with a donor through our in-house donor program or connect you with outside donor agencies that recruit donors for fresh donations.

2. Frozen Donor Eggs
   Frozen (vitrified) donor eggs cost about half as much as a traditional cycle. With frozen donor eggs, the donor has already completed her stimulation and retrieval, so her eggs are ready for immediate use, and you can cycle at a time that works best for you. In most cases, frozen donor eggs are more cost-effective than a traditional fresh cycle because the fixed costs of donor egg retrieval are shared across multiple lots of eggs. Furthermore, our success rates are nearly as good as traditional cycles. If available, you may purchase additional lots of eggs for future attempts at having full biological siblings.
   The Fertility Institute of Hawaii is a founding partner of Donor Egg Bank USA, a network of the most respected and premier fertility practices in the United States and Canada. In response to the growing need for a nationwide database of diverse egg donors, Donor Egg Bank USA was launched to help fertility patients realize their dream of having a baby, with the added convenience of a faster treatment process.
   

Our Partnership with Donor Egg Bank USA

Composed of the most esteemed fertility clinics across North America, Donor Egg Bank USA was established to meet the growing demand for a comprehensive, nationwide donor registry. This collaboration was designed to help intended parents achieve their family-building goals through a streamlined, efficient treatment path. Since 2012, the DEB USA network has shipped more than 3,500 egg lots across the US and Canada on behalf of partner fertility programs like ours.

Through our close alliance with Donor Egg Bank USA, the Fertility Institute of Hawaii has empowered hundreds of individuals to fulfill their dreams of bringing a baby home. Recipients are welcome to view Donor Egg Bank USA’s online donor database to learn more about their donors. Search Donors Here.

Donor Egg IVF Success Rates

When exploring donor egg IVF, it’s important to understand how fertility success rates are measured and what they can realistically tell you. Every patient’s circumstances are unique, and factors such as age, medical history, embryo quality, and the treatment plan all affect the likelihood of success.

How IVF Success Rates Are Measured

Success can be reported in several different ways, including pregnancy rate, clinical pregnancy rate, live birth rate, and cumulative live birth rate. While a positive pregnancy test is an important milestone, live birth is generally considered the most meaningful measure of treatment success.

When comparing fertility clinics, it helps to understand which outcomes they report and how they calculate those results. Success rates may vary by patient age, diagnosis, embryo testing, and whether clinics transfer fresh or frozen embryos. Comparing similar patient groups provides the most accurate perspective.

At the Fertility Institute of Hawaii, we believe in providing transparent, meaningful information to help patients make informed decisions about their care. During your consultation, our team will review your medical history and discuss the success rates most relevant to your treatment plan.

Donor Egg IVF for Women Over 40

As women age, both the number and quality of their eggs naturally decline, making pregnancy with their own eggs more challenging. Donor egg IVF can help overcome this age-related decline because the egg donor’s age, rather than the recipient’s, is one of the strongest factors influencing embryo quality and pregnancy outcomes.

For many women over 40, donor egg IVF provides a significantly improved chance of achieving a healthy pregnancy compared with treatment using their own eggs. Although no fertility treatment can guarantee success, donor egg IVF remains one of the most effective treatment options for patients experiencing age-related infertility or reduced ovarian reserve.

Our experienced team works closely with each patient to develop a personalized treatment plan and guide them through every stage of the donor egg IVF journey with compassionate, evidence-based care.

FAQs

What’s the difference between fresh and frozen donor eggs?

A fresh cycle gives you all the eggs a matched donor produces in one retrieval, providing recipients with the opportunity to produce multiple embryos. In most fresh cycles, eggs are fertilized, cultured to mature embryos, and then cryopreserved so you can coordinate your transfer cycle for a time that works for you, when your uterus is ready to receive an embryo during a frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycle. Frozen eggs, whether from the Egg Bank of Hawaii, Donor Egg Bank USA, or other outside donor banks, are already retrieved and frozen, so we can start treatment immediately once you select donor eggs, typically at a lower cost than fresh eggs. Like fresh eggs, we thaw frozen eggs, fertilize them, and culture them into mature embryos, then cryopreserve them until we are ready to transfer them to the uterus. This ensures we can optimize the uterus during a transfer cycle and have high-quality embryos available.

How diverse is the donor pool?

Because FIH is based in Hawaii, our local donor pool includes Native Hawaiian donors alongside donors from many other backgrounds, including Asian, mixed-Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic, and African American. Through Donor Egg Bank USA, patients can also search a nationwide network for an even broader match.

How do I get started?

Contact us here or on Klara by texting 808-855-6932 to schedule a consultation. You can also browse available donors with Donor Egg Bank USA at no cost or obligation.

How do you ensure the quality of frozen donor eggs?

Not every fertility lab has mastered the science of freezing and thawing donor eggs consistently. FIH has demonstrated strong lab results in this area, which is part of why we were invited into the Donor Egg Bank USA network, which holds every partner lab to the same quality standard, so outcomes stay consistent no matter which program a patient’s eggs come from. Learn More About Why Quality Matters.

How are donors screened?

Each frozen egg donor in the Donor Egg Bank USA network has already completed her retrieval cycle, so her eggs are frozen and ready to ship the moment you select her. Each donor has been screened for more than 200 common genetic conditions, plus baseline hormone testing, infectious disease testing, a psychological evaluation, drug screening, and a full history and physical. There’s no cost or obligation to register and browse available donors. Search Donors Here

Are there any guarantee plans?

Yes. Donor Egg Bank USA offers several financial plans with built-in guarantees, so you can choose the level of protection that fits your goals and budget. Every plan includes their Blastocyst Guarantee, which ensures you’ll get a usable blastocyst for transfer, freezing, or biopsy at no charge. If you don’t meet these criteria, you will receive a replacement egg lot. For those seeking the highest level of protection, the Assured Refund Plan™ offers a 100% refund if you don’t achieve a live birth (please note that you must meet the criteria to qualify). Other options, like the Multi Egg Lot Refund Plan and Single or Double Egg Lot plans, offer different combinations of egg lots, treatment coverage, and refund protection. You can compare all of Donor Egg Bank USA’s financial plans here to learn more.

How do I get started?

Contact our office to discuss which donor egg treatment option may be best for you.