This website helps increase awareness of living organ donation and HRSA’s Living Organ Donation Reimbursement Program (LODRP). About this project The ExploreLivingDonation.org website helps increase awareness of living organ donation and HRSA’s Living Organ Donation Reimbursement Program (LODRP). The LODRP helps eligible living donors with out-of-pocket costs related to donation, including travel, lodging, lost wages, and child or elder care. The federal program is administered through the National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC). The Explore Living Donation (ELD) Collaborative This website hub was developed through a collaboration led by Health Literacy Media and Houston Methodist Hospital , working alongside national partners including the National Kidney Foundation , American Liver Foundation , Our Healthy Community , and others committed to expanding access to living donation education and support. The resources were designed with input from living donors, transplant recipients, caregivers, and transplant professionals. Advisory board The Patient Education Living Donation Advisory Board serves as a consultant to the Living Organ Donation Reimbursement Program (LODRP) Education initiative. The Advisory Board ensures that patient education materials and outreach strategies are accurate, culturally relevant, accessible, and responsive to the needs of all stakeholder groups involved in living organ donation. The Advisory Board represents a diverse range of perspectives, including: Living organ donors and donor candidates Transplant candidates and recipients Family members and caregivers Transplant and healthcare professionals Community advocates and educators We thank our advisory board for their valuable insights in guiding the development of this website, every step of the way.

Read through kidney donor education all in place and explore resources. I am ready to explore living kidney donation Explore resources to help you learn about living kidney donation, understand your options, and take next steps when you're ready. Start exploring kidney education on our website Start now Learn about financial help to lower donation costs Learn about HRSA’s Living Organ Donation Reimbursement Program, which reimburses up to $6,000 of certain expenses for living donors and their caregivers on their trips to the transplant center for evaluation, surgery, and medical follow-up visits. Learn about financial help Talk to others about living donation If you have questions about living kidney donation or need help finding a transplant center, you can contact National Kidney Foundation's NKF Cares. Contact NKF Cares Watch stories of living donors Watch videos from real people who have donated an organ or received an organ from a living donor. Watch donor stories Find a transplant center near you Use an online tool to search for a transplant center in the U.S. based on organ type and location. Find a transplant center Learn about living kidney donation through text messages Sign up to get short educational texts sent to your phone to learn at your own pace through QuizToo. Sign up for QuizToo Explore additional resources Find more information and tools to support you along the way. Explore resources Talk to others about living donation If you have questions about living kidney donation or need help finding a transplant center, you can contact National Kidney Foundation's NKF Cares. Contact NKF Cares Watch stories of living donors Watch videos from real people who have donated an organ or received an organ from a living donor. Watch donor stories Find a transplant center near you Use an online tool to search for a transplant center in the U.S. based on organ type and location. Find a transplant center Learn about living kidney donation through text messages Sign up to get short educational texts sent to your phone to learn at your own pace through QuizToo. Sign up for QuizToo Explore additional resources Find more information and tools to support you along the way. Explore resources

Understand the eligibility to become a living liver donor. Becoming a living liver donor Who can be a living liver donor? To be a living donor, you must: Be an adult between ages 18-60 and able to make an informed decision Be in good physical and mental health Understand the risks and benefits of living donation Decide for yourself if living donation is right for you As a potential liver donor, you will work with a transplant center throughout the donation process. This is a healthcare facility dedicated to transplant care. The transplant center staff will need a lot of information about you to make sure you are healthy enough to donate in order to make the final decision. Certain health issues may cause the transplant center staff not to approve you to donate an organ. This is for your health and safety. Different transplant centers may have different criteria, but here are some examples of such health issues: Uncontrolled high blood pressure Untreated psychiatric (mental health) condition Cancer Diabetes Certain infections If you are not approved at one transplant center, you may be able to try other centers. And sometimes, the transplant team may ask you to work on certain health issues, such as to quit smoking, and come back in 3-6 months to try again. They can refer you to resources to help with these health issues. Did you know? After a liver transplant, the liver regrows to full size. Your liver is the only internal organ in your body that can regrow itself if a part is removed or transplanted. This is called regeneration . This is true for both the donor and recipient. When someone donates or receives a part of a liver, it regenerates, or regrows: Cells in the liver (called hepatocytes) grow larger and make copies of themselves to regrow the liver. It will grow back to its full size, or close to its full size, 2-3 months after transplant surgery. After surgery, doctors check how well the liver is regenerating and working. Regenerated livers grow back to full function and usually work just as well as a full liver. Previous Next Progress through living liver donor education

Accessibility statement This statement was last updated on October 6, 2026. We at Health Literacy Media are working to make our site Explore Living Donation (www.explorelivingdonation.org ) accessible to people with disabilities. What web accessibility is An accessible site allows visitors with disabilities to browse the site with the same or a similar level of ease and enjoyment as other visitors. This can be achieved with the capabilities of the system on which the site is operating, and through assistive technologies. Accessibility adjustments on this site We have adapted this site in accordance with WCAG 2.0 guidelines, and have made the site accessible to the level of AA. This site's contents have been adapted to work with assistive technologies, such as screen readers and keyboard use. As part of this effort, we have also: Used the Wix Accessibility Wizard to find and fix potential accessibility issues Set the language of the site Set the content order of the site’s pages Defined clear heading structures on all of the site’s pages Added alternative text to images Implemented color combinations that meet the required color contrast Reduced the use of motion on the site Ensured all videos on the site are accessible Requests, issues, and suggestions If you find an accessibility issue on the site, or if you require further assistance, you are welcome to contact us through the organization's accessibility coordinator: eld@healthliteracy.media

Start living kidney donor education now. Select a topic to begin. Learn about living kidney donation Choose the topic you want to learn about or start at the beginning and walk through step-by-step Learn about kidneys and kidney transplants Becoming a living kidney donor Benefits and risks of living organ donation Planning for living organ donation Where to learn more if you are interested in donating

Learn abour directed donation, non-directed donation, and how donations are matched. Becoming a living liver donor As a donor, who can I donate to? As a donor, you may be able to donate directly to a specific person, or more generally to anyone in need of a liver transplant. Directed donation Directed donation is when you donate an organ to a specific person. In directed donation, the donor may be: A blood relative of the recipient, such as a parent, brother, sister, or adult child Someone close to the recipient, such as a spouse, a friend, or a co-worker Someone who the donor has heard about but does not know personally Non-directed donation Non-directed donation is when you want to donate but do not know (and may never know) the person you will donate to. In non-directed donation, the donor may be: Someone wishing to donate to a stranger on the transplant waitlist Someone who begins the process to donate to a friend or family member, but later decides to donate to a stranger after the friend or family member gets an organ from someone else How will I know if I match with someone in need of a liver? If you match with someone well (called medically compatible), this will lower the chance that the recipient’s body will reject the transplanted liver. Rejection is when a recipient’s body sees the new liver as foreign and tries to attack or destroy it. This could lead to the transplant failing. Transplant centers do tests to match donors and recipients by: Body size: The donor’s and recipient’s bodies should be about the same size, which means their livers will be about the same size (except if an adult is donating to a child). Liver anatomy: Certain parts of the donor’s liver, such as large blood vessels that flow through it, must be in a location that allows surgeons to place the liver into the recipient’s body. Blood type: Certain donor blood types only work with certain recipient blood types: If your blood type is... The recipient's blood type must be... If your blood type is O The recipient blood type must be A, B, AB, or O If your blood type is AB The recipient blood type must be AB If your blood type is A The recipient blood type must be A or AB If your blood type is B The recipient blood type must be B or AB Tissue typing (also called “HLA typing”): A blood test that compares 6 antigens (proteins found on cells). The more antigens that match between you and the recipient, the more likely the recipient’s body will accept the donated liver (and the less likely it will be to reject it). Crossmatching : Another blood test in which your blood is mixed with the recipient’s blood to see if the antibodies (proteins in the immune system) in the blood react to each other. If they do, it means the recipient’s body is likely to reject the donated liver. Can I still donate if I am not a match with the recipient? Sometimes, a person wants to donate part of their liver, but testing shows they are not a match for the person they hoped to help. This can happen because of blood types or other medical reasons. In this case, transplant centers can work to match donors and recipients to create compatible pairs. Think about it as a swap or an exchange: A paired donation is a swap between two donor and recipient pairs. A donor chain is a swap between several pairs of donors and recipients. Previous Next Progress through living liver donor education

Understand the surgery process, expetced recovery, and care planning. Becoming a living kidney donor Donor surgery In a living donor kidney transplant, doctors remove one of the donor’s kidneys and place it into the recipient’s body. Donor surgery usually follows these steps: 1 You and the recipient will go to the hospital on the day of the surgery. 2 Before your surgery, doctors will: Numb your belly area — the numbness will last 12-24 hours. This will help lower your pain after surgery and the amount of pain medicine you’ll need right after surgery. Put a needle into your vein to give you medicine and fluids (called an IV) Put you to sleep with general anesthesia Put in a catheter, which lets urine drain from your bladder while you’re asleep and recovering 3 The surgery takes 3-4 hours. There are 2 types of living donation surgeries: Laparoscopic (also called minimally invasive), where a surgeon will: Make small cuts in your belly Put a wand-like camera in the cuts so they can see your kidney. They put air or gas in you, so they can see better inside your body. Take your kidney out through a small cut Close the cuts with stitches Open surgery: This type of surgery is less common. It may be done if there are problems during a laparoscopic surgery. A surgeon will: Make a large cut in your belly Take out the kidney through the cut Close the cut with stitches After either type of surgery, the surgeon connects the donor kidney into the kidney recipient’s body right away. Recovery from surgery After surgery, living donors need time and help from family and friends before getting back to routine activities. Donors should always speak with their transplant doctor about the right time to return to their activities. Here are some tasks and the average time living kidney donors take to return to each. Activities Time it takes after surgery (These will vary for each donor) Stay in the hospital About 1-2 days Drive a car About 2 weeks Get back to work Around 2 weeks if your job has less physical tasks, such as desk work or you work from home 4-5 weeks or longer if your job has more physical tasks or labor Get back to pre-donation activities About 4-6 weeks Lift heavy items About 6-12 weeks Activities Time it takes after surgery (these will vary for each donor) Stay in the hospital Time it takes after surgery About 1-2 days Drive a car Time it takes after surgery About 2 weeks Get back to work Time it takes after surgery Around 2 weeks if your job has less physical tasks, such as desk work or you work from home 4-5 weeks or longer if your job has more physical tasks or labor Get back to pre-donation activities Time it takes after surgery About 4-6 weeks Lift heavy items Time it takes after surgery About 6-12 weeks Every donor is different. Some donors get back to their lives quickly. Others say they feel tired for quite a while after donating. Since you do not know how you will feel, it is important to have family and friends ready to help you for as long as you need. How well will my remaining kidney work? Right after surgery, you will lose half of your kidney function. Over the next 3-6 months, your remaining kidney will get bigger and do the work of both kidneys. This also happens for the donated kidney in the recipient. Caring for long-term health After donation, living donors need to take good care of themselves and have yearly medical check-ups with their regular doctor. All living donors need certain tests 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months after surgery. Ask the transplant team: What tests will I need? Where will the tests happen? Such as at the transplant center, a local lab, or at your own doctor’s office. Are there telehealth or virtual options? The recipient’s insurance covers the above services. Follow-ups are very important Follow-up visits help the transplant center make sure donors are healthy. As a donor, this is also your chance to talk about how you feel and how you can be as healthy as you can. Donors should always go to follow-ups after donating and see their regular doctor every year. They should always let them know they’ve donated a kidney so they can check basic lab levels, including kidney function. Previous Next Progress through living kidney donor education

See what recovery can look like and plan for your longterm health. Becoming a living liver donor Recovery from surgery After surgery, living donors need time and help from family and friends before getting back to routine activities. Donors should always speak with their transplant doctor about the right time to return to their activities. Here are some tasks and the average time living liver donors take to return to each. Activities Time it takes after surgery (these will vary for each donor) Stay in the hospital Time it takes after surgery About 1 week Get back to work Time it takes after surgery Around 6-8 weeks if your job has less physical tasks, such as desk work or you work from home Longer if your job has more physical tasks or labor Lift heavy items Time it takes after surgery About 8-12 weeks Get back to pre-donation activities Time it takes after surgery About 8-12 weeks Drive a car Time it takes after surgery About 2-4 weeks Every donor is different. Some donors get back to their lives quickly. Others say they feel tired for quite a while after donating. Since you do not know how you will feel, it is important to have family and friends ready to help you for as long as you need. How well will my liver work? Right after surgery, your liver begins to grow back (regenerate). It will return to full size in 2-3 months. Even while the liver regrows, the part that is left can make up for the work that the full liver normally does. You may feel tired while your liver regrows. Your doctor may tell you to: • Take naps as needed • Add more protein to your diet Caring for your long-term health After donation, living donors need to take good care of themselves and have yearly medical check-ups with their regular doctor. All living donors need certain tests 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months after surgery. Ask the transplant team: What tests will I need? Where will the tests happen? Such as at the transplant center, a local lab, or at your own doctor’s office. Are there telehealth or virtual options? The recipient’s insurance covers the above services. Follow-ups are very important Follow-up visits help the transplant center make sure donors are healthy. As a donor, this is also your chance to talk about how you feel and how you can be as healthy as you can. Donors should always go to follow-ups after donating and see their regular doctor every year. They should always let them know they’ve donated a part of their liver so they can check basic lab levels, including liver function. Previous Next Progress through living liver donor education

Learn about the liver and causes of liver failure. Learn about the liver and liver transplants What is the liver? The liver is a large organ in your upper belly area, above your stomach. Its main job is to remove waste and toxins (harmful substances) from your blood. Your liver does many other important jobs, such as to: Help your body digest food and turn it into energy your body can use Store energy from food so your body can use it later Make certain blood cells and keep the amounts of different blood cells in balance People cannot live without a working liver. If a person’s liver stops working, they need a liver transplant to live. Why does the liver stop working? People who have liver failure need a liver transplant. In liver failure, a person’s liver can no longer do its many jobs to keep them alive and healthy. What causes liver failure? Liver failure can happen suddenly or slowly over time: Acute liver failure or injury When someone’s liver fails suddenly, it happens over days or weeks. This is called acute liver failure. It is a medical emergency. Acute liver failure can be caused by different things, including: Taking too much of certain prescription or over-the-counter medicines, or of some street drugs Ingesting a poisonous substance An autoimmune disease (when a person’s immune system attacks their own body) Chronic liver failure When someone’s liver fails slowly over time, it is called chronic liver failure and leads to end-stage liver disease. This happens slowly over years from a disease or health condition that damages the liver. The damage is so severe that the liver stops working. This can be caused by different things, including: Infection by hepatitis viruses (hepatitis A, B, C, D, or E) Diabetes Obesity (being very overweight) Drinking a lot of alcohol over a long period of time – 2 or more drinks per day for men and 1 or more drinks per day for women, over 5-10 years. This is called alcohol-associated liver disease. (Though, heavy binge drinking can also cause acute liver failure.) People with a family history of liver disease may have a higher chance of liver disease and liver failure. “I am just starting to learn about living liver donation.” Yes No Submit Previous Next Progress through living liver donor education

How to become a living donor. Read more about the screening process Becoming a living liver donor What is the living donation process like? The living donation process includes: Donor screening Donor evaluation Donor surgery These steps are described below. Donor screening The first step is to contact a transplant center , which is a healthcare facility dedicated to transplant care: If you’re trying to donate to someone you know, you’ll reach out to the center where they are on the waitlist. If you don’t have a specific person you’d like to donate to, you can begin the process at any transplant center. Here is what happens when you contact a transplant center: 1 A living donor staff member will briefly explain the donation process and ask if you agree to give some information about your health – this is called your consent. Your consent begins the process. 2 They will then ask you screening questions about your health either by an online form or over the phone. 3 The transplant team will consider your answers, and things like certain health issues you have, to decide if you can continue to the next step, called donor evaluation. Transplant centers have different criteria for certain health issues and their risks to donors, so even if you have some minor health issues, it may be possible to donate. Transplant staff will explain their decision to you. Previous Next Progress through living liver donor education

Learn about the benefits and risks of living liver donation. Benefits and risks of living organ donation Emotional and social considerations How do most donors feel about their decision to donate? Research shows that most liver donors (97%) do not regret their decision to donate, especially those who were well supported. Most living liver donors have very little change in their emotional health throughout the transplant process. In the first year after donation, some people report physical health problems, but these typically improve within 6 months after donating, such as: Feeling bloated Loss of muscle tone Changes in their body image Fatigue, or feeling very tired A small number of donors have short-term emotional changes after donating When donors go through donor evaluation and surgery, they get a lot of healthcare in a short time. But over time, they get less care after their donation surgery is over. For a small number of donors, this can cause changes in their mood and life satisfaction after donating, such as: Depression and anxiety Fair or poor physical health, such as fatigue and pain Being worried about their current or future health because of donating Changes in their body image, such as feeling less attractive due to a scar from surgery Changes in their relationships, such as with other family members or a spouse These short-term feelings can happen to anyone. What can donors do to protect their emotional health? To protect their emotional health, donors can: Learn all they can about organ donation and possible emotional changes, so they are prepared if this does happen Build a strong support system ahead of surgery Take the time they need to make their decision about donating, so they feel fully confident in their decision. Donors have a better recovery when they feel confident about their decision. Previous Next Progress through living liver donor education

Learn about the benefits and risks of living kidney donation. Benefits and risks of living organ donation Emotional and social considerations How do most donors feel about their decision to donate? Most living donors (about 90-95%) say they have positive feelings about donating an organ, including: Feeling more fulfilled in their life Feeling little or no regret about donating Having an improved relationship with their recipient And saying they would make the same decision again to donate In fact, researchers have found that donors are just as happy with their health as the general population and healthy people who have not donated. This is true in the short-term (first few years after donating) and long-term (even decades after donating). A small number of donors have short-term emotional changes after donating When donors go through donor evaluation and surgery, they get a lot of healthcare in a short time. But over time, they get less care after their donation surgery is over. For a small number of donors, this can cause changes in their mood and life satisfaction after donating, such as: Depression and anxiety Fair or poor physical health, such as fatigue and pain Being worried about their current or future health because of donating Changes in their body image, such as feeling less attractive due to a scar from surgery Changes in their relationships, such as with other family members or a spouse These short-term feelings can happen to anyone. What can donors do to protect their emotional health? To protect their emotional health, donors can: Learn all they can about organ donation and possible emotional changes, so they are prepared if this does happen Build a strong support system ahead of surgery Take the time they need to make their decision about donating, so they feel fully confident in their decision. Donors have a better recovery when they feel confident about their decision. Previous Next Progress through living kidney donor education