SPERM AND EGG DONATION - THE PROCEDUREDonor eggs are in greater demand than sperm. Yet unlike sperm donation, the procedure offers no payment to donors and is far more complicated. Although there has always been a plentiful supply of sperm donors in the form of students eager for the £12 payment, less sperm is now needed. Sperm versus the eggThere are new techniques which can extract a single healthy sperm from a man with a low sperm count, thus reducing the need for donors. Many clinics, including the University of Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine, now buy sperm from a sperm bank rather than from donors themselves. This sperm is frozen for six months and then tested for diseases before being used. There is a great shortage of egg donors across the UK. It is a more involved process and egg freezing has not yet been commercialised.  | | Sarah attends this Bristol clininc for egg harvesting |
No financial gainIn America women are paid for their eggs, but in Britain it is illegal to pay for eggs and clinics can only cover expenses. It is not an easy process. The donor has to sniff a hormonal nasal spray for around 4 weeks followed by self-administered injections to stimulate the ovaries to produce lots of eggs. Blood tests and internal scans are required before harvesting. This is done while the donor is anaesthetized. The harvesting is done with a hollow needle attached to a pipe and a pump, guided by ultrasound. It pricks the follicles in the ovary and sucks out the eggs. The eggs are taken from the donor and if there are over 8 eggs they will be given to two recipient couples. These are then mixed with the sperm and when fertilised, the embryo will be placed into the womb of the recipient mother. | 
