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Intended Parents

Choosing an Egg Donor By Physical Characteristics

If using an egg donor is part of your journey to experiencing what it’s like to be a parent, you have a level of autonomy when it comes to what you can choose about them.

Growing up, you may have pictured your family and what everyone looks like. Knowing how to choose an egg donor and what you’re looking for in a donor, like their physical characteristics, can help narrow down your choices.

Learn more about the the emotions of using an egg donor

There are many reasons for looking for something specific in a donor and this article will dive into why physical characteristics may be important to some couples and what kind of physical characteristics you can choose.

How to Find an Egg Donor that Looks Like You: Egg Donor Profiles

Physical characteristics may be important to you for any number of reasons, from wanting your child to look like you to having a picture in your head of what you envisioned your child looking like for years.

When you are looking to secure donor eggs, you can find them through professionals such as donor egg banks, fertility clinics and donor egg agencies.

These professionals have egg donor profiles of all the egg donors they work with. Some professionals offer completely anonymous egg donation programs while others have an open ID egg donor which means the donor consents to sharing identifying information with any child born from their donation. 

In addition to the physical characteristics described above, a profile can also include egg donor photos, both current and from when they were a child, personal and family medical history, interests, personal accomplishments and goals and more.

One of these, or multiple different factors, could help you feel a deeper and stronger connection to your child. Wanting a child of the same race so they can grow up with a similar impact your heritage had on you is perfectly normal.

But having your egg donor baby look like you does not shape the personality and character of your child.

Appearance, and even genes, does not indicate what your bond will be like with your child. That will come from how you love and raise your child as love runs deeper than just a genetic connection.

Contact us online if you are looking for a reputable egg donation program. We can connect you with fertility clinics that are located close to you.

How to Choose an Egg Donor by Physical Characteristics

When it comes to how to choose an egg donor, appearance is one of the many things you can choose.

The choice is yours to make and if there are particular characteristics that you are looking for, you can find them.

Height

Height could be important to you for any number of reasons.

From wanting your child to have a similar height to you or your partner or even giving them a chance to excel athletically depending on the sport.

Alternatively, maybe the majority of your family is of short or medium height and you don’t want your future child to feel ostracized at home. You can find tall egg donors, short egg donors and in general, egg donors of varying heights.

Hair Color

Your connection to your child can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Hair color is definitely one of those physical characteristics that may make you feel closer to your child.

Hair color is decided based on dominant and recessive genes. So, a blond egg donor or redhead egg donor, for example, are two examples of recessive traits. This means the child needs to inherit two recessive genes to have blond or red hair.

Alternatively, darker hair colors like black or brown are dominant. So if you or your partner does not have dark hair, choosing an egg donor with darker hair could increase the chances of your child having dark hair.

Race

Depending on where you are from, if you have a darker or lighter color skin tone, you may want your donor egg baby to look like you.

This could entail looking for egg donor profiles that are from similar areas geographically if not the same country.

You could even go the complete opposite direction, choosing a donor of a different race or ethnicity. That could entail having sensitive discussions about race and identity down the road. 

Build

Maybe you live a healthy lifestyle or had an unhealthy lifestyle growing up.

This could impact your decision making, for example, wanting a beautiful egg donor inside and out who takes care of their body.

You could check things like their body mass index and weight ratio when looking at egg donor profiles.

Eye Color

Have you always liked a certain eye color better than the rest? Do you want your child to have the same eye color as you or your partner? If you answered yes to either of those questions, it’s absolutely possible to find a certain eye color, like a blue eyed egg donor for example.

Eye color is similar to hair color in the sense that it’s determined by dominant and recessive genes, an allele from the birth mother and birth father.

Egg donor profiles can show their eye color, allowing you to choose the color you want.

What disqualifies you for egg donation?

There are a number of health, lifestyle and legal disqualifying criteria for egg donors. Examples of those include any infectious diseases, taking certain types of medications, drug use, smoking or tobacco use, alcohol use, breastfeeding, age and body mass index.

Contact us online if you need a professional to start looking at egg donor profiles. We can connect you with fertility programs that are close by that have egg donation programs.

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