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Many fertility treatments in the UK use donated sperm or eggs. Some people will always have known that they’ll need a donor to have a family. For others, finding out they need a donor can be a real shock. Find out more about using donated eggs, sperm or embryos in your treatment.

If you’re having fertility treatment with donated sperm or embryos at a licensed UK clinic and you’re not married to, or in a civil partnership with, your partner, it’s essential that you both give consent before treatment so that he or she will be the legal parent of your child. Find out more about legal parenthood and why it’s so important.

Before embryo transfer, various decisions need to be made about your embryos. This page explains the decisions you and your clinic will need to make.

Some people who are having fertility treatment have embryos which are not transferred in their IVF cycle. Find out how your embryos can be frozen for use in later treatment or to donate to research, training or someone else.

Scientists need eggs, sperm and embryos to carry out research to understand and improve fertility treatments. Without this kind of research treatments like IVF wouldn’t exist, and without future research there can be no advancements in treatments, technologies and knowledge.

For many people, using donated sperm is the only chance they have of fulfilling their dream to have a family.

When you register as a sperm or egg donor, you will be able to provide some information about yourself, such as a personal description and a goodwill message for any children born from your donation. This page will give you some help in deciding what to include.

Choosing to donate your eggs to someone in need is an amazing, selfless act that gives hope to the thousands of women who are unable to conceive naturally. Find out more about what egg donation involves and if it’s something you can offer.

If you’ve had fertility treatment, you may have frozen embryos which you decide not to use yourself.