If you are thinking about how to become a living kidney donor, the process is more structured — and more reversible — than most people expect. You are not signing anything binding by starting. At every stage, right up to the day of surgery, you can stop.
More than 90,000 people in the United States are waiting for a kidney, and the average wait at most transplant centers runs three to five years, longer in some parts of the country. A successful living-donor transplant can allow a patient to come off the deceased-donor waiting list.
1Decide, without pressure
There is no obligation attached to reading this page, registering, or even talking to a transplant center. Living donation is voluntary by law and by medical ethics. Transplant centers assign donors an independent donor advocate whose only job is to represent the donor's interests — not the recipient's, and not the center's.
2Register with MatchingDonors
MatchingDonors is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has been connecting patients with living altruistic donors since 2004. Registering as a potential donor is free. You create a profile describing who you are and your interest in becoming a living donor, and you can browse the patients who have registered.
You choose whom to help. That is the part most people do not realize. You are not assigned to someone. You can read patients' stories and decide who to reach out to. Your transplant center determines medical compatibility.
3Match with a patient
When you and a patient both want to proceed, the process moves to that patient's transplant center. Nothing medical happens through MatchingDonors itself — the nonprofit makes the introduction, and the transplant center does all clinical work.
4The transplant-center evaluation
This is the longest stage, and it exists to protect you. The center runs blood and urine tests, imaging of your kidneys, a full medical history, a psychological assessment, and a meeting with your independent donor advocate. They are checking two things: that donating is safe for you, and that you are choosing it freely.
Expect weeks to months rather than days. Tests are often spread across several visits and results have to be reviewed by a committee. If the evaluation identifies a significant concern, the transplant center may decline the donation — and that decision is made to protect your health and safety.
5The surgery
Kidney removal for donation is usually done laparoscopically, through small incisions rather than one large one. Living donors typically stay in the hospital one to two nights.
6Recovery
Most donors make a full recovery four to six weeks after surgery, and many return to desk work sooner. You will be asked not to lift anything heavier than a jug of milk for about six weeks while the incisions heal.
Longer term the evidence is reassuring. According to the National Kidney Foundation, donating your kidney does not change your life expectancy, and fewer than one percent of donors go on to develop end-stage kidney disease.
What it costs you
Your medical costs as a donor are generally billed to the recipient's insurance rather than to you. Travel, lodging and lost wages are a separate matter, and a federal program reimburses many donors for exactly those. That is covered on does it cost money to donate a kidney.