178: The Relaxback UK Show with Mike Dilke - Episode 178178: The Relaxback UK Show with Mike Dilke - Episode 178
UK Health Radio Podcast
A specialist and an experienced egg donor talk through the realities of IVF and egg donation, from medical procedures to ethics, costs and emotions. Their conversation outlines how age, regulation and personal choice shape fertility treatment in the UK.
33:54•11 Aug 2026
IVF, Egg Donation and Tough Choices: A Candid Chat with a Doctor and Donor
Episode Overview
- Age has a major impact on fertility, with IVF success rates dropping sharply after 40 when using your own eggs, but staying higher with donor eggs from younger women.
- Egg donation involves screening, hormone injections and a short sedated procedure; most donors experience only mild, period-like discomfort afterwards.
- UK regulations strictly control donor anonymity, limit the number of families created, and ensure donors receive counselling and can withdraw consent up to a certain point.
- Egg donors in the UK receive capped expenses rather than large payments, and many donate for largely altruistic reasons rather than financial gain.
- Access to NHS-funded IVF remains a postcode lottery, pushing many people towards self-funded treatment despite clear national guidance.
“Yes, they were my eggs. Yes, it’s my DNA. But I don’t look at it that way. I think I just see that I’ve helped somebody else.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol, or to rethink their relationship with their body, family and future? This time, the chat turns to fertility, IVF and egg donation – an area that affects far more people than many realise. Host Mike Dilk talks with Dr James Hopkisson, UK medical director at TFP Fertility, and egg donor Rachel Allison, pulling back the curtain on what IVF and egg donation actually involve.
Dr Hopkisson sets the scene with some clear numbers: around 100,000 fertility treatment cycles are carried out yearly in the UK, and about one in seven couples need to speak to a doctor about their fertility. Age, changing family structures and increased awareness all play a part in that rise. For anyone curious about how egg donation works, Rachel’s story is likely to stand out.
She explains how she donated three times, initially while having her own treatment with donor sperm. She walks through the practical side – hormone injections, short clinic visits, a sedated egg collection – and sums up the physical impact as “very similar to your period pains”. Her motivation is disarmingly simple: “Yes, they were my eggs. Yes, it’s my DNA. But I don’t look at it that way.
I think I just see that I’ve helped somebody else.” Dr Hopkisson goes into the safety checks, from conscious sedation to screening for genetic and infectious conditions, and explains the strict UK rules on anonymity, limits on the number of families, and counselling to make sure donors don’t regret their decision.
He’s refreshingly blunt about success rates too: roughly 20–25% with your own eggs at 40, dropping to about 5% by 43, compared with around 40% when using donor eggs from someone under 36. For anyone weighing up parenthood later in life, thinking about donating eggs, or simply trying to understand friends going through IVF, this conversation offers clear facts, real experiences and plenty to reflect on. Could egg donation be a way you change someone else’s life?
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