Many questions arise as potential egg donors consider the possibility of providing eggs to an anonymous recipient couple. Questions naturally arise as donors learn that they will be taking injectable medicine in order to generate multiple eggs during a single donation cycle. When the normal pattern in all reproductive age women is that only one egg comes to maturity and ovulates each month, it's logical to question whether retrieving multiple eggs during one cycle, will eventually result in decreased future fertility of the donor.
The good news is that there is no evidence to suggest that donors will experience a decreased potential for fertility and/or childbearing by donating eggs. A well documented decline in fertility naturally accompanies aging in women, and the occasional egg donation cycle among otherwise normal cycling women does nothing to alter their long-term fertility. By the same token, women may wonder that if by taking birth control pills and therefore inhibiting ovulation, they may have a longer fertility potential, but that is also false. The major correlation with fertility over an individuals' life-span is age and age alone.
In fact, the number of eggs any female has occurs even prior to birth. Female infant ovaries, at approximately 20 weeks gestation, contain roughly 5 million eggs. When the child is born, the ovaries contain roughly 2 million eggs. There is always a gradual decline throughout the life of the young female child such that by puberty, the ovaries contain roughly 400,000-500,000 eggs. Over the course of a woman's childbearing years, only about 400-500 eggs actually make it to maturity and get ovulated. The vast majority of eggs never reach maturing and never ovulate, but are gradually absorbed by the body between puberty and menopause. However, the age of maturity is 51+ years, and no evidence to date suggest that the use of fertility medication or egg donation will decrease the egg reserved to any degree that results in premature menopause.
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