The egg donor screening process: a step-by-step guide for agencies

Most writing on egg donor screening is aimed at donors or intended parents. This guide is for the agency: what you screen before a donor goes on your database, what the clinic screens after she is chosen, and how to run both without losing good donors along the way.

Short answer: Agencies screen egg donors in two layers. Before listing, the agency checks the application against its criteria (most programs follow ASRM guidance, which suggests donors aged 21 to 34), reviews health, family and education history, verifies identity, holds an interview, and collects photos and a full profile. After intended parents choose her, the IVF clinic runs medical screening, FDA-required infectious disease screening and testing, genetic carrier screening and, usually, a psychological evaluation by a qualified mental health professional. The agency's job is to make the first layer thorough and kind, so fewer donors fail the second, and to track every step so a chosen donor reaches her cycle on time.

General information, not medical advice. Medical eligibility and screening decisions belong to the IVF clinic and qualified medical and mental health professionals. Agencies coordinate; clinicians decide.

Two layers of screening

The most useful thing an egg donor agency can understand about screening is who owns which part. The agency owns eligibility to be listed: is this applicant a good candidate, is her information complete and honest, and is her profile ready for intended parents to read? The clinic owns medical eligibility to donate: is she medically, genetically and psychologically cleared for a specific cycle with specific intended parents? The clinic's screening is regulated and repeated close to each retrieval. The agency's screening is where you decide what kind of program you run.

Agencies that blur the two either list donors who will obviously fail clinic screening (wasting intended parents' hopes and the clinic's time) or try to act like a clinic and slow every applicant down. The goal is a first layer that catches the predictable problems early and a clean handover to the clinic.

What the agency screens before listing

1. The application

A donor application should ask the disqualifying questions first: age, height and weight (most programs use a BMI range), smoking and drug use, current contraception (some methods affect timing), whether she has donated before and how many times, and whether she can commit to the appointments and travel a cycle involves. Then come the long sections intended parents care about: education, career, interests, personality, a personal letter, and a detailed health and family history covering at least parents, siblings and grandparents.

ASRM guidance suggests oocyte donors be between 21 and 34, and its ethics committee has recommended limiting the number of stimulated cycles a donor completes; many programs cap donors at six. Most agencies also set their own rules on BMI, education and lifestyle. Write your criteria down, put them in the form, and apply them the same way to every applicant.

2. Photos and identity

Intended parents choose donors partly on photos, so most agencies ask for several: childhood photos, a clear current face photo and a full-length photo. Verify identity with a government ID before a profile goes live. Some agencies also ask for a public social media profile as one more way to confirm the person is who she says she is.

3. Application review

A coordinator reads every answer, not just the ones that flag. Look for inconsistencies (a height that changes between pages, a family history that is blank where it should not be), follow up on anything vague, and note what needs a record. If a family history question raises a hereditary concern, flag it for the clinic and genetic counsellor rather than deciding yourself.

4. The interview

A video or phone interview confirms the application, gives her a realistic picture of what a cycle involves (injections, monitoring appointments, the retrieval, recovery, and the time it all takes), and checks her motivation and support. It is also where you explain how compensation works in your program, how anonymity or openness works, and whether she is willing to be contacted in the future.

5. Records and history

Previous donors should provide cycle records from earlier donations. Ask about any prior complications, how she responded to medication, and how many retrievals she has completed. Some agencies also request education records for profiles that state a degree.

6. Profile ready to list

A donor is ready to list when her application is complete, her photos are in, her identity is verified, and her profile reads well. A thin or inconsistent profile costs you twice: intended parents skip her, and the ones who choose her ask questions you have to chase later.

What the clinic screens after a match

Once intended parents choose a donor, their IVF clinic takes over medical eligibility. The exact protocol differs by clinic, but usually includes:

• Medical evaluation: history, physical exam, ultrasound and hormone testing to estimate ovarian reserve and response.
• Infectious disease screening and testing. In the United States, FDA rules (21 CFR Part 1271) require a donor eligibility determination, including screening and testing for relevant communicable diseases, timed close to the retrieval.
• Genetic screening: carrier screening and a review of family history, often with a genetic counsellor, and sometimes matched against the intended father's or sperm donor's results.
• Psychological evaluation: ASRM recommends that donors be evaluated by a qualified mental health professional, which often includes standardised testing and an interview.
• Legal clearance: a donor agreement negotiated with independent counsel for the donor, signed before medication starts.

The agency coordinates all of this: sharing the donor's file with the clinic (with her written consent), scheduling, travel where needed, reminders for appointments, and making sure the contract is signed before the cycle calendar starts.

Where donors fall out, and how to keep them

• Slow first reply. Donor applicants are often students or young professionals applying to several programs. The agency that replies first, with a clear next step, usually keeps her.
• An application that never ends. Long forms lose people halfway. Save progress, let her come back from a link, and send a reminder when she stops.
• Surprises late in the process. If she learns about the number of injections or the time off she needs at the clinic, she may withdraw after she has been chosen. Explain everything in the interview.
• Predictable clinic failures. Most can be anticipated from the application: BMI out of range, smoking, a family history that needs genetic review. Catch them before listing.
• Silence while listed. A donor who waits months without hearing from you may stop answering. A short check-in every few weeks keeps her ready and her details current.

What to track

• Where each applicant is: applied, reviewed, interviewed, listed, chosen, clinic screening, cleared, in cycle, retrieval done.
• Which answers flagged her and why, so the decision is consistent and explainable.
• Photos, ID, prior cycle records and consents received, and what is still missing.
• How many cycles she has completed, against your program's limit.
• Where she heard about you, so you can see which recruiting brings donors who get chosen and cleared, not just applications. See how to recruit egg donors.

How SurroHub helps

SurroHub is a surrogacy and egg donor agency platform, so the donor program runs in the same system as surrogacy, with the screening steps above built in.

• Donor applications that enforce the basics. Every SurroHub egg donor application asks for four to eight photos, at least one social media profile and her highest education, so a profile never goes out half finished.
• Flags you set. Mark any answer red, orange or yellow in the form builder. Red, orange and yellow answers show on her profile for a coordinator to review, so criteria are applied the same way every time.
• Stages, sub-steps and a checklist. Each donor moves through your stages with a workflow checklist: who owns each step and when it is due, with late steps flagged.
• A donor portal. Donors see their own checklist, upload documents, sign contracts and message the team from their phone.
• Profiles that build themselves. Surro, the built-in AI assistant, lays out a polished donor profile from the application and photos, ready to share with intended parents.
• Reject or close kindly. Close a donor with one or more reasons, and any automated messages to her stop.

Want the facts in one place? SurroHub by the numbers: what it is, who built it, and what agencies run on it today.

Sources: ASRM, Guidance regarding gamete and embryo donation; ASRM, Repetitive oocyte donation: a committee opinion; FDA, 21 CFR Part 1271 (human cells, tissues and tissue-based products).

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