In support of World Menopause Day 2023 we are celebrating the amazing women that gift their eggs to help others to have a baby.
World Menopause Day is held every year on the 18th of October and supported by the WHO. The purpose of the day is to raise awareness of the menopause and the support options available for improving health and wellbeing. While menopause in your 50s is the next phase of life, for those of childbearing age it can be deeply shocking.
Premature menopause can be a shock
Although associated with women in their 50s, the symptoms of peri-menopause can start as early as 40 years of age, or younger.
Women are born with all the eggs they will ever have, and they lose them gradually over time. However, the rate of loss increases significantly after the age of 35 and for some women even earlier. It can be a deep shock to find that they have had a premature menopause in their twenties.
The condition is often inherited so by making women aware of the risk of premature menopause they can be empowered to make decisions – perhaps to start their family earlier, to consider freezing their eggs to preserve their fertility or to be aware of the option to use donated eggs within fertility treatment.
Egg freezing to preserve fertility
The technology to freeze eggs has improved over recent years and the success rates for defrosted eggs used in treatment has improved, making this a good option for women that are not ready to start their families but are concerned about future loss of fertility.
Eggs from younger women (under 35 years) give higher success rates even when used by older women as part of IVF treatment.
To gain sufficient mature eggs, the ovaries are stimulated with hormone treatments and the eggs collected and frozen until required.
Donated eggs give hope
Every egg donated is very precious and can make a life-changing difference to another’s life.
To become an egg donor you need to be aged between 18 and 35, and be healthy with no family history of serious or inherited illnesses.
Alternatively, if you need IVF treatment yourself or want to freeze your eggs for social reasons then you can egg-share and receive the treatment only paying for medication and any storage costs.
“Being an egg donor makes me feel amazing”
Sarah chose to egg-share when she had IVF treatment at Bourn Hall. As a single woman she was incredibly grateful to the man who had chosen to donate sperm and felt that egg sharing was her way of giving something back.
Also, being given IVF at a reduced cost made it more accessible to her, especially if she needed more than one cycle. Donor sperm is high quality and baby Esmé was conceived first time.
Sarah says: “For the sperm donor the words ‘thank you’ will never be enough. People who donate have no idea how much they change people’s lives and make their dreams come true. Even though I have never met him, he has helped to give me a beautiful baby girl and for that he will forever be my hero.
“Being an egg donor makes me feel amazing; I can request an update about how it has worked for someone else. I honestly cannot wait to find out – that would be the next best thing to come out of this.”
On World Menopause Day we are thinking of those for whom this life change comes too early.
If you feel you can help others to complete their families by donating sperm or eggs, get in touch .
More information
Find out more about Bourn Hall donor treatments.
If you would like to consider being an egg donor visit our sister website Become A Donor.
Find out more about menopause at daisynetwork.org and on the NHS wesbite
Find out more about World Menopause Day from the British Menopause Society and the International Menopause Society.
Related articles
Big thank you to egg donors – celebrating International Women’s Day
Posted - March 8, 2021
Egg bank to reduce waiting times for donated eggs
Posted - March 25, 2019
Thinking about freezing your eggs? Your options explained
Posted - March 14, 2024
