Egg donor blog

How closely do they assess your BMI and weight?  I am 5′7 and weigh 172.  My BMI is right at 127.  I am in the process of trying to lose more weight.  I don’t look very overweight.  I wear a size 10 and I am very active and exercise daily. I have been battling my weight my whole life and really want to invest in someone’s life through donating my eggs.  Am I a bad candidate strictly due to higher weight range?

Unfortunately, yes.  I’m not saying with any sort of certainty that an agency will not accept you as a donor, but I can tell you with complete certainty that physical attributes are the very first thing a prospective couple will assess.  It’s the first thing they see–just like anything else.  A couple was interviewing me once, and they asked me what my favorite book is and why.  What on earth does it matter what my favorite book is and why?!  But to the recipient, it mattered enough to put it on a list of questions and ask.  I urge donors to put themselves in the recipients’ shoes when considering egg donation with regard to their genetic history, lifestyle and physical appearance.  Couples undergo IVF because of their inability to conceive on their own, and that’s such an incredible loss of control that they make up for it by being extraordinarily picky about who they’d like to be the mother of their children because they have complete and total control over the outcome of that choice–and I think that’s understandable.  If you were that recipient, you’d look for very-near-flawless, too.  And, unfortunately, it’s a bit shallow, but, it is what it is.  Again, I’m by no means suggesting you should hang up your hat; but I am being very honest about the cold hard truth of the industry.  Good luck.

And to put things in perspective, I’m 5′8″ and my ENTIRE life, up until I was 25, I wore a size 12 and weighed around 170ish pounds.  I never looked that heavy, I was always athletic and always active, I was just a big girl among my thin friends–my whole life.  By the time I became an egg donor at 27, I was a size 4.  As you get older, you figure your body out, and the change comes easily and quickly.  You’ll be just fine, I’m sure.  Hang in there, and know it’s not a final answer.