Building a family with donor eggs is more common than most people realise, and a few well-known women have talked openly about doing it. Their stories are worth reading if you are weighing the same choice. They show two things clearly: donor eggs are often the route to a baby later in life or after illness, and the bond between a mother and her child does not depend on shared DNA.
Sonia Kruger: a baby at nearly 49
The Australian television host Sonia Kruger was told at 45 that she had no realistic chance of conceiving with her own eggs. She went on to have her daughter at nearly 49, using an egg donated by a close friend. Kruger has spoken about the counselling she and her partner went through with the donor, and about her belief that you can love a child completely even when the child does not carry your genes. (Yahoo News Australia)
Brittany Daniel: her twin sister’s gift
The actress Brittany Daniel was diagnosed with stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2011. The chemotherapy that saved her life also reduced her egg reserve, so her identical twin sister Cynthia offered to donate her own eggs. After three IVF attempts did not succeed, the couple had their daughter in 2021 with the help of a surrogate, still using Cynthia’s eggs. Because the sisters are identical twins, the baby is as genetically close to Brittany as a child could be without being her own. (NBC News)
Barbara Corcoran: a sister who volunteered
The entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran, known from Shark Tank, learned at 41 that she was unlikely to conceive naturally. She asked her sisters for help, and used an egg donated by a younger sister to have her son, who was born in 1994. She has spoken openly about becoming a mother later in life. (biography)
What these stories have in common
Each of these women turned to donor eggs for a reason many of our patients will recognise. Age, or a medical setback that affected their own eggs, closed one door, and donor eggs opened another. Each of them kept the decision open rather than hidden. And each is clear that the love came first, not the genetics.
Their stories also show that a donor can be someone you know, a friend or a sister, in countries where that is allowed. It helps to understand how the choice works where you are being treated.
How egg donation works in India
In India, egg donation is anonymous. The rules set by the ICMR do not allow you to use a named friend or relative as your donor. Instead your clinic matches you with a screened donor whose profile you can review. Our donors are healthy young women, medically and genetically screened, and each receives a fixed compensation of Rs 50,000. You can see how we match recipients with a donor on our find a donor page, and what the treatment involves and costs on our donor egg IVF cost page.
If you are thinking of becoming an egg donor yourself, you can check whether you are eligible in about 30 seconds.
You can also read our own patients’ donor egg stories, or see how to become an egg donor if you would like to help another family.
Common questions
Can I use a friend or family member as my egg donor in India?
No. Under ICMR guidelines, egg donation in India is anonymous, so you cannot use a named friend or relative as your donor, unlike some of the overseas cases above. Your clinic matches you with a screened donor whose profile you can review.
Does using a donor egg mean the baby is not really mine?
You carry the pregnancy, give birth, and are the mother in every legal and practical sense. As the women above describe, the bond with your child does not depend on shared DNA.
Thinking about donor eggs?
Reading other women’s stories can make a hard decision feel less lonely, but your own answer depends on your reports and your history. If you would like to talk it through, tell us a little about your situation and we will reply with honest guidance.
Reviewed by Dr Aniruddha Malpani, MD, Malpani Infertility Clinic, Mumbai. Sources are linked inline; the celebrities named have spoken publicly about using donor eggs.