L's Story: Part One

If you’re thinking about or trying to use an egg donor, you’ve probably already been through a lot.  I am 34 years old and I was told about a year and a half ago that I suffer from a diminished ovarian reserve and it was very unlikely that I would be able to give birth to my own child.  

While I knew there was something wrong very early on, I never expected to hear that it was very unlikely and that it probably wouldn’t happen.  My FSH was only borderline in the beginning so we decided to hurry up and try an IVF cycle first.  We got 6 eggs (a miracle we thought), 5 fertilized, 4 survived the first 2 days and 3 were viable for implantation.  They weren’t a very high grade and they didn’t have the best cell count but all 3 were implanted anyway, there’s always a chance.  Well, I couldn’t help but be elated to find out on the first attempt that I was pregnant according to the first blood test.  Within a week though, my levels dropped, instead of doubling every day, and I was told that I had a chemical pregnancy but it wasn’t viable.  My eggs just weren’t strong enough, healthy enough.  Encouraged by the fact that I thought they were wrong and I DID have eggs, I wanted to try again.  We tried a different protocol the second cycle and I ended up getting canceled this time before retrieval.  We finally gave in and decided to go the donor route.  We’d like to have more than one child and recognizing this could take a long time, felt we should get moving on to the donor process.

We’ve now worked with two clinics in two different states, 3 different agencies and I’ve lost track of how many donors, probably a dozen.  I’m sure there are recipient couples who’ve matched quickly and had a successful transfer on the first attempt, however, that was just not our luck.  We, unfortunately, suffered a very miserable experience with a terrible agency in FL that really highlighted the importance of a good agency.  At first, I didn’t care which agency we selected because I was so picky about which donors were an option for us.  It will save you a lot of time if you are selective about both.

-L, Recipient

Editor's Note: L's story will be continued in part two of this installment.  If you'd like to share your story on our blog, please contact Katie at katie@bhed.com!

On the CNN story “Egg Donors on the Rise”:

I am a donor with BHED and anytime I catch the words ‘egg donor’ between diaper changes and operating my business on the TV I turn to look.

Women are flocking to agencies (per CNN HLN) because of the economic crisis for the need of money and the high level earnings made from cycles.

So I called in and got to speak for about a minute!

I advised that prospective donors should not just get involved with the egg donation process because of desperation in a failing economy but because they truly would like to help out the families that are in need healthy eggs. Infertility is a disease! I worry that a woman in a desperate circumstance may not be able to handle the commitment it takes to be a donor. I added that money is disposable where as helping to create life is not.

I am so happy to be a donor - the families I have helped are able to have what they wanted so dearly, a family of their own. This Christmas I know there is a couple I helped that will be sitting around the tree with their little one (as I will be) and that is something more rewarding than any dollar amount.

-Suzi, donor