More and more people are aware that egg donation is an option while trying for a baby

The number of women using donated eggs has risen sharply in the UK in the past 10 years, BBC reports.

In 2006 1,912 women had IVF using a donor egg, compared with 3,924 in 2016, shows the data of Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

More and more people are aware that egg donation is an option while trying for a baby, there are more donors, more same sex couples and also more single and older women that are using them, the British authority explains.  

The number of women donating their eggs is also on the rise. 

Egg donation procedure

Women usually need to be between 18 and 35 to donate their eggs and the process for donating is similar to the early stages of IVF, involving hormone injections and egg removal. Under UK law, women cannot be paid for egg donation but can receive compensation of up to £750 per cycle to cover their expenses.

"It's extraordinary how many recipients we actually have coming to us who didn't even know they could have the help of an egg donor - that they've even got a finite number of eggs and there is a time clock ticking for them, so yes I think people are far more aware now. That's what has changed in the last five years or so, this general awareness that fertility is finite and you need to get on with it”, coments for BBC Alison Bagshawe, founder of the Altrui, the only company in the UK to recruit egg donors.