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Intended Parents

Will My Donor Egg Baby Have my DNA?

While a donor egg baby won’t inherit your genetic material, the journey of bringing them into the world is uniquely yours.

The connection you have with your child isn’t diminished just because your baby’s genetic makeup comes from an egg donor.

Whether you’re carrying the pregnancy yourself or working with a surrogate your love and care will be the basis of the bond between you and your child.

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In this article, we’ll explain what exactly an egg donor is and how they are used in in-vitro fertilization (IVF), touch more on what matters when it comes to the connection you have with your child vs. DNA and how you can select certain traits about any egg donor you want to work with.

Will My Donor Egg Baby Have My DNA?

No, your donor egg baby will not have your DNA.

The DNA will come from the egg donor and the sperm of the intended father or donor.

Does Your Donor Egg Child Look Like You?

Your donor egg child could look like you. If you want your baby to look like you, you can find a donor bank with donor profiles to select an egg donor who looks like you to increase the chances of similar physical characteristics between you and your baby.

Although the choices you make when choosing an egg donor could have an impact on what your child looks like, there is no guarantee that they will share specific traits if that’s what you are looking for with this process.

You are able to choose a wide range of things about your egg donor in addition to their physical appearance, such as:

If religion plays a big part in your life, or maybe you want religion to play a bigger part in your child’s life than you had, you can find a religious egg donor.

Whether you value an egg donor with a certain type of educational background or want your child to have a similar knack for schooling there are egg donors with all types of educational backgrounds.

You could want an egg donor with a certain type of lifestyle for a number of reasons. Maybe you live a healthy, active life and want your child to share that activeness. There are egg donors of many varieties of lifestyles to choose from.

Ethnicity can help play a role in shaping identity. If your ethnicity, and the heritage and culture that comes with it, helped you become the person you are today, it would make sense for you to want that for your child.

If you work with a reputable professional to find an egg donor, most offer some form of an egg donor profile to help you learn more about them.

In addition to characteristics you can choose that are discussed above, they’ll include other important information from photos of themselves to their medical history.

Whose DNA Does a Donor Egg Have?

Donor eggs only contain DNA from the donor. The carrier’s DNA, whether that be you or a surrogate, does not transfer to the donor egg.

Once the embryo transfer occurs, it means the egg has developed into a blastocyst stage embryo that has DNA from the egg donor and sperm provider.

No DNA is transferred from the carrier that would change the genetic makeup of that embryo.

Epigenetics and Donor Eggs

Epigenetics looks at how cells control gene activity without actually changing their DNA.

Pinnacle Egg Bank touched on new research on humans and animals that showed the maternal environment impacts brain development, metabolism, immune system function and more.

When it comes to donor egg IVF, although you may not share DNA with your baby, your body does impact genetics and development, from your uterine environment to diet to stress levels and more.

Surrogacy may mean you are not part of the in-utero development of your baby but working with a reputable professional can ensure that you are matched with a surrogate who can safely carry a pregnancy.

Learn more about how surrogates are screened

Does a Baby Share DNA with Egg Donor?

Yes, a baby born from a donor egg shares DNA with that egg donor. Embryos are created with DNA from the egg and sperm in equal amounts. So if an embryo is created with a donor egg and the sperm of the intended father or a donor, it will share DNA with the egg donor.

Parenthood Is More Than DNA

Sharing a genetic connection to their baby is important to some intended parents while it doesn’t affect others.

The bottom line is that the connection you have with your child goes much further than genetics. When it comes to that connection, just think about the emotional aspects of the journey to parenthood you have been on.

The love you feel for your child that hasn’t yet been born is just a small example of how further that bond goes and that love and support you give to your child as they grow into the person they will become helps form a bond that goes much further than shared DNA.

A fertility clinic will be responsible for handling the medical processes that come with using donor eggs, from the egg retrieval to the embryo transfer.

If you still need a fertility clinic we’re here for you. Fill out our online contact form to get connected with reputable clinics that are close by.

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