Egg donation

[Guest Oryx]

Does anyone know anything about egg donation? As in, can a trans guy donate his eggs that he never wanted to have anything to do with? I know that women can do that, and get paid a not insignificant amount of money for it, but I'm not sure trans men are eligible. I'm not on T yet, so that wouldn't be a factor, and I'm of legal age. I figure if they let me, it would make some woman very happy and give me some money to start my transition with.

Advice/suggestions/thoughts?

[Guest Jo-88]

Since your not on T yet I don't see any medical or biological reason why you couldn't donate eggs... if it can make you some extra cash, I say go for it. Too bad sperm isn't worth a darn a thing, otherwise I would have stockpiled and cashed in long ago haha

[Guest Mittens_kittens]

Hi Oryx,

If you search Wikipedia for "Egg Donation" you will find an article that seems to cover the process fairly well. It looks like you could possibly make a couple thousand dollars ($4,000?) donating your eggs.

Unfortunately, it's nowhere near as easy as a male-bodied person donating sperm. You would need to have a complete physical, blood tests and an ultrasound to rule out health problems. Then you would be sent to a psychologist to see if you were emotionally stable enough to donate. Only then would you be put on female hormones and daily injections for a couple of weeks to get the eggs ready for retrieval. These hormones would have the opposite effect of what you are probably shooting for as an FTM, but of course it's only a few weeks. The retrieval process is "a minimally invasive surgical procedure lasting 20–30 minutes, performed under sedation. A small ultrasound-guided needle is inserted through the vagina to aspirate the follicles in both ovaries, which extracts the eggs."

My FTM son has been looking into egg freezing lately, as he would like to have the opportunity to have a biological child someday. He is not interested in carrying a baby himself, but the frozen eggs could be transferred to a future wife or girlfriend. The process is very expensive though (Approx. $13,000), so it doesn't look feasible for us right now, and I've heard the T he just started may affect his eggs after awhile.

Hope there is something here that can help you figure out if donating your eggs is feasible for you. We can certainly empathize with the costs associated with transitioning.

Mittens

[Guest Oryx]

Hmm, that does sound like quite a process. On the other hand, a few thousand dollars would definitely come in handy... I guess it's something to think more about and possibly discuss with my doctor when I get back home. Thanks for the very helpful comment!

[KieranD]

Reasons not to donate eggs:

The hormones given to a donor are not fun. They often give negative side effects which tend to be temporary, but still exist. If you disclose being trans it's likely that they won't accept your donation (there tends to be a preference towards wanting eggs of folks who are desirable with no history of family health problems).

[Guest Ebany]

At least in the states you have to make a certain amount of money to qualify... some old white guys in power decided that women (especially poor, young women) aren't qualified to make that decision. So they had to make sure the woman folk weren't being taken advantage of. I looked into it 7 or 8 years ago but was in the "poor and young" category so wasn't a good candidate. Still am in the "poor" category. lol

Danny

[Guest blairrrr]

I have donated eggs to a couple twice. I have not taken any testosterone and I went through the process as if a cis gendered female I guess. I bind and pass as male some of the time so I definitely looked queer... I'm not sure how some of the people in the clinic took me but the worst that happened was a few funny looks. I used my birth name for all documents too.

The fertility hormones definitely played with my emotions a little bit, and I had to do some some injecting. I'm not too squeemish about that sort of thing, but It does take some getting use to.

The surgery is pretty minor in the sceme of things but I went under a general anaesthetic both times and there are always risks involved with that. I've heard that some places do the cocktail drugs which kind of don't put you to sleep but you don't remember anything and you're really out of it. It doesn't have the same risks as a general but I think they knock you around a bit. I preferred the sound of the general anyway.

You'll feel pretty bloated prior to surgery in the pelvic ovary area because you have all these big eggs in there when you'd usually only have one or two.

The recovery is also quite painful depending on how many eggs you get and stuff. I had to eat lots of protein and drink lots of water to prevent hyper-stimulation syndrome which is not exactly common but I think most people get it a little bit. I spent a few days on the couch both times, and felt completely fine after a week or two.

Good luck! I'd say it's a great thing to do for people. It's not a lightweight decision, but it's not a horrible experience either.