When the woman is unable to produce an egg for various reasons, she can have an egg donated from a healthy person. This treatment is called Donor egg, in which husbands sperms are used to fertilize in the lab.

The donor woman provides one or several (usually 10-15) eggs >ova, oocytes) for purposes of assisted reproduction. For assisted reproduction purposes, egg donation typically involves the process of in vitro fertilization as the eggs are fertilized in the laboratory, unfertilized eggs are frozen and stored for later use by the intended parents.

The egg donor's eggs are harvested from her ovaries in an outpatient surgical procedure and fertilized in the laboratory, and a resulting embryo or embryos is then transferred into the intended mother.  Donor oocytes and embryo transfer has given women a mechanism to become pregnant and give birth to a child that will be their biological child.

A need for egg donation may arise for a number of reasons. Infertile couples may resort to acquiring eggs through egg donation when the female partner  may not have eggs that can generate a viable pregnancy. Early onset of menopause which can occur in women as early as their 30’s can require a woman to use donor eggs to grow her family. Some women are born without ovaries or other reproductive organs. Sometimes a woman's reproductive organs have been damaged due to disease or circumstances required her to have them surgically removed. Another indication would be a genetic disorder on part of the woman that can be circumvented by using eggs from another person. Many women have none of these issues, but continue to be unsuccessful using their own eggs.

Egg donors are first recruited, screened, and give consent prior to participation in the IVF process. Once the egg donor is recruited, she undergoes IVF stimulation therapy, followed by the egg retrieval procedure. After retrieval, the ova are fertilized by the sperm of the male partner (or sperm donor) in the laboratory, and, after several days, the best resulting embryo(s) is/are placed in the uterus of the recipient, whose uterine lining has been appropriately prepared for embryo tran beforehand.