Have infertility issues but still want a baby that looks like you? Beverly Hills Egg Donation thinks it has a solution.

This year, the Beverly Hills business began offering a service that helps connect parents-to-be with an egg donor who resembles them. It uses licensed 3-D facial recognition software that analyzes photos of both potential parents to produce a computer equation of their features. It then compares that equation against a database of 200 qualified donors and selects the five closest matches. The couple can then select the donor based on those matches and other criteria, such as educational or athletic background.

“One of the things our patients want is a child that looks as closely as possible to the mother and father,” said Roger Hermann, chief marketing officer of the donation company. “In the old days, we would put the pictures together side by side and make a judgment call. Now, we can do it scientifically.”

The technology has been available in the sperm banking industry for years, Hermann added, but is only recently becoming part of the egg donation side.

The service is available as part of an initial consultation with the company for a $500 fee. If the couple uses the company for its egg donation, that fee is deducted from the approximately $7,000 cost of donor services.

Hermann said only about 20 percent of the company’s clients have used the new service so far, but he expects it will become more popular in the future.

– Jacquelyn Ryan