What does Egg Donation actually involve?

[SassyMummy]

Since I was about 14 or 15, I'd thought it would be lovely to help a family conceive. My friend's Aunt (who we saw quite a lot) was having a lot of trouble because she couldn't ovulate (due to prior cervical cancer) and her husband's sperm had unusually large heads so they were pretty crappy swimmers (which always made me kind of laugh at the image of sperm with giant heads dragging along...).

Anyway, I'm getting side-tracked.

What I'd like to know is what is involved in Egg Donation?

I would love to one day offer my eggs to someone who desperately deserves them. I wish I could actually offer someone surrogacy or something, but I don't think I could cope with that. Giving a few eggs away seems a lot less stressful than carrying a child for 9months only to hand it over. I also think that, if I were wanting a child but couldn't use my own eggs, to actually be able to CARRY a child would be incredible!

So yeah, just so that I can think further about this...I was just wondering if anyone had a little more info on the subject.

I would probably wait a few years to do it, but there's no harm in thinking ahead.

[JnA]

Hi Stacey

firstly - what a wonderfull gift to give to someone.. you are truely a generous person.

Now AFAIK you would need to stimulate your follicles so they can collect more than just the one you get naturally. This is done with hormone injections for about two weeks.
Then there is the collection. This is done under anesthetic.. it blanks your memory, but it's light so if they ask you to do somehting (like raise your hand) you will do it. It is a fairly simple procedure and you only have to stay in for a morning. (all going well). There is not a great deal of pain associated with it, but it is a little unconfortable for a couple of days.
I advise you to phone a fertility clinic, or donation clinic to get the latest infor on the precedure and confidentiality issues.

Good luck.

[~beckkles~]

I know through most clinics this is done totally anon with no charge to you.
There is quite an extensive process re counselling and legal issues that might pop up in the future. Most clinics like there donors to have finished having a family before they consider donor.
You don't get to choose who to donate too unless you are being a family or friend donor, so your ideal situation that you have in your head of a married couple could infact be a single prof woman ( not that there is anything wrong everyone deserves to be happy)
Unfortunatley there are alot of people that are keen to donate but because it requires abit more than the ole sperm donation alot don't follow through, and alot of patients prefer to use a family member to keep the gentic line.
Its a lovely thought and congratulate you on thinking about helping another person become a mummy
Bec

[SassyMummy]

Thanks for the informations thus far.

I plan on waiting quite a decent time before donating...so for now, I'm just inquiring so that I can decide whether or not to continue thinking about it.

Maybe in a few years a friend will need my help, and then I can help her out. If not, then I guess I'll just see how it goes.

Thanks again for the information so far! :-)

[Roxy]

Popping my head in here....there is some info in the posts here that is right, and some that's not so..well..right :)

Firstly, what's involved....

Donating eggs is done with the donor undergoing a full IVF treatment cycle (down regulated with the pill normally in the first instance, then sniffing a spray for a few weeks to keep down-regged, and then injecting yourself with a stimulting hormone to get the ovaries to produce more than the one egg a month they normally would. The whole cycle generally takes about 6 weeks...

I know through most clinics this is done totally anon with no charge to you.

You can donate anonymously via a clinic if you wish. However, more and more research is showing that this isnt the ideal situation for any children created from your donation. I cant imagine not knowing where I came from :o

Most donors are aged from their mid 20's through to their mid 30's. You can quite often do a known donation until you are in your late 30's. I was about to turn 31 when I donated late last year to a close friend.

There is a compulsory counselling before you will be allowed to donate, to make sure that you are aware of all the ins and outs.

The egg collection can be done under sedation, where you are aware of whats happening, or under a full general anaesthetic (which I had). There is some discomfort after, but I found it to be more bearable than period pain.

Congratulations on thinking about this, you could one day make someone's dreams come true!

[~beckkles~]

What I meant to say is that you are anon to the couples not the clinic!
And if a child is concieved she or he can apply for the information of the donor.
Bec
Sorry;)

[sarahstarfish]

Hey Ladies

Just wanted to second what Foxy Roxy has said in her post re the anonymous donor situation.

In Victoria and WA, there is legislation against completely anonymous donor cycles which means you must be comfortable with being identified once the people conceived reach a certain age (WA - 16; Vic -18 I think). Both states have specific databases where both donor/recipient family identifying details are kept for when the people concerned reach that age and are able, if they wish to, to contact their donor.

Many other clinics in other states, and I think all the Monash clinics, are now not allowing donors to donate unless they agree to be identified down the track. Some clinics still do completely anonymous donation but I think the tide is definitely turning against them, as Roxy said, because so much research has shown people want to know the truth of their life story.

I honestly only know a handful of anonymous donors - the great majority are known donors who have approached clinics, advertisements etc to go on and meet the people they donate to and keep some basic contact going for any children conceived in the future.

You can donate completely anonymously at some clinic - unfortunately this also means that the clinic will not allow any people conceived to access their donor's information. As a donor, you can ask the clinic to pass on a letter to the parents to see if they want contact BUT I think you have to be honest with yourself and ask why the parents wanted an anonymous donor to begin with. And the clinic also have some responsibility as presenting you as an anonymous donor to try and keep it that way. There is also the worrying fact that many people concieved via anonymous donation do not even know they are donor conceived. A figure of 70% of sperm donor conceived people do not know the true story of their beginnings..so don't even know how or where to start looking.

If you contact a clinic and they tell you you can only do an anonymous donation, I would be talking to another clinic - while it might be true for that particular clinic, for most clinics it is not. The clinic I went through in Brisbane was wonderfully supportive of my need to donate in a known situation and could not do enough to help me find the right people....please PM me if you want to know which clinic.

So yes, you CAN meet your recipients, you CAN ask them for updates and photos, you CAN meet any children born...the trick is to take your time, know exactly what YOU want from your donation and for any children conceived and find the people who feel exactly the same way about things as you do. Legally, once those eggs are fertilised, you have absolutely no say over any embryos or lives to be - so you need to get it right first up, before you start taking drugs.

Most known donations appear to be very comfortable, understanding friendships..perhaps out of sharing a lot of intimacy together rather than out of any particular design.

I guess the big thing I think to get your head around is that it isn't all about you as a donor, or about a recipient's overwhelming need to hold a baby, it is really about those people who our decisions impact on the most - the lives yet to be conceived. I really feel it's all about what they might need or want from us, not about what WE need. While it is all romantic and teary and selfless to help someone have a family, I think it is more important to look at what you are doing in black and white - providing your genes for someone else to make a baby. Please don't think you are just 'giving away an egg' because you aren't - you are providing the essential building blocks of a life that will be half of your unique genes. This life will also be a genetic half sibling to your own children, and many donors feel that responsibility greatly, that their own children know about and have a chance to meet in the future their own genetic half-siblings.

Sorry about the blather - just wanted to reiterate Roxy's words...perhaps I should have just left them alone!!

Love

Cindy

[JnA]

Roxy

can you explain more to me about the nasal spray? When I did IVF late 2004, I didn't use any spray, just the hormone injections.. PM if you like. thanks.

[Mash]

Hi ...
I'm sure Roxy won't mind me answering for her:) .. Syneral is a nasal spray equivalent of the lucrin which you probably injected in the early parts of your cycle... It inhibits your own hormones and puts you into like a menopause so that the clinic has control over your ovulation and cycle.. Some clinics prefer the syneral..others seem to be mean and prefer the lucrin and double injecting:p ..

[The Waffler]

Well I have just finished my first donation (1.5wks ago) and I found it physically a breeze.

I started sniffing the Syneral spray on Day 21 of my cycle and as the other girls said it puts your body into a menopausal (sp?) state so it is possible that you will be moody, suffer hot flushes, just like a menopausal woman might etc.. though I never did. This spray stops your body from ovulating. Then on Day 2 of my next cycle I started injecting a drug called Gonal F and while I hear you all go "Oh god how do you do that to yourself", well it was easy peasy, and this coming from someone who is scared of needles and never watches during a blood test. The drug comes in a pen form so all the dosage is already in there and you just dial the right dosage and then click on a new needle every day (and it's soooo fine) and inject into one side of your belly button (alternating each day). Honestly it really doesn't hurt, once or twice I felt uncomfortable but the rest of the times I felt nothing and had to double check that I had actually injected myself.... My recipients had offered to drive around EVERY morning and give me the injection themselves but I wanted to face a fear!!!

Anyhoo, you inject for around 10-16days depending on how well your body stimulates and produces those eggies, during this time you will go for a blood test and scan (though every clinic is different) on Day 8, Day 10 and then at their discretion just to monitor your eostrogen levels and how many follicles you have growing...

Then when the number and size are good (you will only go for a maximum of 16 days of injecting) you will be told by the clinic to stop injections and during that day you will give yourself another injection of a different drug (can't remember the name) and that will tell your folicles to realease the eggs I think in 36hours, by which time you will be in surgery with your legs up around your ears and in a wonderful slumber!!! Our clinic gives you a general anaesthetic but it is sooo small that you wake up about 15mins after it's all over and within 2hrs I was going home (sick in the car.. lol) and a bit achey (nothing major only period like cramps on and off) and by the next day I was all fine.....

During the whole cycle the only thing I uffered was tiredness, I was VERY tired but other than that it was very simple.

As a donor you shouldn't be out of pocket for anything.... My recipients took me out for lunch on the days we had blood tests, they paid for petrol, parking, made us dinners, paid for takeaway, etc... all while doing my cycle they never made a big deal about it, just slipped the money in and wouldn't hear anything about it.... I took some days off work because of blood tests and stuff, they paid for those days I took off..... The nicest thing was that they just went out of their way to make sure I was comfortable, that my family wasn't suffering and just in general caring and thoughtful people... and yeh sure I am doing this for them but they constantly tried talking me out of it, they didn't want my family to suffer because of it...

Good luck I hope some of my waffle was appropriate for you..lol:p ...

[JnA]

Good to hear from someon who has actually done it from a donor perspective (as opposed to me who did it to conceive myself)

Thanks for answering Mash I didn't get the spray, my clinic was one of the nasty ones that made me do two injections.

Maybe next time (if there is a next time)

[Chickadee]

I may have gotten confused reading this thread, so not sure if this has been answered already.

It seems like most of the people on here so far who have donated an egg have known who the recipient is. Is that usual? I can understand when it's family or friend, but otherwise? Is it up to the recipient to try to find their own donor in order to bypass waiting lists? :confused:

[schmell]

Wow martha I was about to ask the same question.

[Supermum]

This life will also be a genetic half sibling to your own children, and many donors feel that responsibility greatly, that their own children know about and have a chance to meet in the future their own genetic half-siblings.
It was all beautifully written Cindy - as usual ... but this para in particular resonated with me. As you know I am very interested in donating "the girls" (as I so fondly call them), and in contact with a potential recipient. There is so much to consider ... and I have already disclosed my expectations which includes meeting the baby, keeping in contact, total disclosure to the child and telling my children about it when they are old enough to understand. I am slowly coming to terms with the enormity of it all. It's lovely to have you hear to fill in the blanks.:kiss:

[xkwzit]

I want to say again how much I respect women who give this immeasurable gift to others, but I don't know how well other issues are dealt with.

I think it would be good to get many of these issues out in the open. That way we won't have really keen ppl getting other's hopes up and then after they've cooled down decide that they can't do it.

It seems to be a whole family issue, not just a woman's choice as all your family are affected: spouse, your own children, your parents (would you tell them, would they think of the donated egg as a genetic grandchild?).

How have ppl dealt with this? What kind of pre-donation counselling is there? You would really want your donor and their family to be absolutely certain about donating and committed to the "project". It is probably alot easier when the recipient is a family member or close friend. Please forgive me if this comes across as negative, I'm genuinely interested in whether the social issues of egg donation are being handled as well as the medical science issues (I also wonder why I had never thought of sperm donation in this light - maybe because I can't donate sperm :D so it was hardly an immediate issue in my life).

Cheers

[Roxy]

It seems like most of the people on here so far who have donated an egg have known who the recipient is. Is that usual? I can understand when it's family or friend, but otherwise? Is it up to the recipient to try to find their own donor in order to bypass waiting lists? :confused:

Martha - a good majority of egg donors do now know who they are donating to. There are still anon donations occurring, but most clinics have actually closed their waiting lists, as most of these lists are now out to a 3 year wait. So, yes, to bypass the waiting lists, a lot of recipients are finding their own donors to bypass the waiting list time. As we all know, 3 years is an awful long time to wait when you want to be pregnant now...


It seems to be a whole family issue, not just a woman's choice as all your family are affected: spouse, your own children, your parents (would you tell them, would they think of the donated egg as a genetic grandchild?).

It is a whole family issue, and the spose must also undergo counselling before the donor will be cleared by the counsellor to donate. I also spoke to my parents and brothers, and whilst my dad and brothers are supportive, my mum isn't. She feels that I am giving her grandbabies away.

There is pre-donation counselling - its a compulsory part of the donation process. Donors, their recipients and the donor's spouse all must have the counselling. From my experiences, whilst the donors have done all the heartwork to get them to the point where they are ready to donate, its quite often the recipients who arent quite ready to let go of the genetic links to any children (understandably).

I think that there are issues to be overcome regardless of whether you are donating to a close friend or family member - a lot of emotions to work through and parameters to sort out. I, personally, found that I wasnt close friends with my IM at the beginning of the whole process, but now cant imagine NOT being friends with her, and having her part of my circle, regardless of if they manage to fall pregnant or not from my donation.

Great questions everyone!