There are several cases of women which can’t produce their own oocytes. Some women have lost their ovaries after radiotherapy or chemotherapy, young women with premature ovarian failure or women whose ovaries do not respond not even to the highest doses of IVF hormones. These women must resort to egg donation for a successful pregnancy. This means that they should undergo IVF treatment, where the sperm of their husband or donor sperm may be used with the oocytes of another woman (donor eggs).

Egg donation is the process by which a woman, anonymous (not known by recipient) or non-anonymous (known by recipient), donates all her oocytes for purposes of assisted reproduction to one or more anonymous or not recipients.

The egg donor receives medication for ovarian stimulation, in order to stimulate the production of multiple follicles and finally collect the oocytes during oocyte retrieval. After oocyte retrieval, all oocytes are donated to one or more recipients.

Sperm donors are usually university or college students or they work in the public or private sector or they may run their own business. Sperm donors are characterized by social awareness and social contribution. Sperm donors are usually young-adults, between 19 to 35, with full legal capacity. They are healthy men, whose personal and family records are free of infectious, genetic or hereditary diseases.

Candidate sperm donors are requested to fill out a questionnaire, which includes information on their personal and family, social, medical, reproductive, sexual and psychological record. Moreover, potential sperm donors should undergo physical examination by an urologist, who will decide if they are capable of participating in the sperm donation program.

According to their medical record and specific psychometric tests, that a candidate sperm donor must undergo, a specialized psychologist will provide a forensic psychological evaluation and will report the possible presence of hereditary psychiatric disorders.

Screening of potential sperm donors involves multiple semen and blood testing, according to the sperm bank donation program.