Egg Donation

tea_lover

Re. egg collection it varies - both times I've had it done have been under GA. (I love GA, it's definitely the best bit of the whole process )

Emmamumof2

Yes Id prefer that - I wonder if its 'up for discussion' - how long ago did you donate tea lover?

tea_lover

I haven't donated, but I've done IVF twice so the stimulation and egg collection phases are the same. This was last year and this year. Of the people I know that have been through the procedure, there's been a variety of sedation/GA, seems to vary by clinic. Having said that, the whole process seems to vary by clinic!

Andypandyboy

It is a selfless act and one which many couples have good reason to be thankful for.

bizzybee

Emmamumof2 wrote: »

Yes I understand there is a lot of counseling involved which is good obviously. Im not frightened of the injecting or the actual retrieval process, lord knows I had enough laparoscopies when I was suffering with the endometriosis! Although it's a bit worrying that its under sedation as oppose to a GA, although I understand that's probably again for safety.


I think the big thing for us would be the chance that a child, or five, could rock up as an adult in 18 years and say "hi, I'm your biological child", and as much as I'm sure they wouldn't necessarily be wanting of anything that could be a tough thing for us as a family, having three kids of our own.


I do think its a priceless gift that is worth giving due consideration and researching to reach the right decision for us.


Do you get to know anything about the family the eggs go to? I'll obviously ask the clinic but wondered if anyone knew. I think at 16 the 'child' could ask for vague details like height/weight/physical attributes/our families size etc but it's not until 18 they can access your details for contact.


I wonder how many people who are the recipients of eggs actually tell their children they were as a result of egg donation, it's not like adoption, where the child is conceived with totally different biological parents and I've carried the child, it's a donation of a cell, of sorts, which is only a baby once fertilized by the sperm....that's how I'm looking at it anyway.....


Certainly lots of food for thought!

If you go to the HFEA website you'll find the information you're looking for regarding shared information.

It was through them that I was able to find out my recipients had twin girls.

At the time I had control over the eggs and chose to give them to one recipient only. Not all the eggs harvested are good enough to be used and I think there's now a limit to the number of fertilised eggs that can be used at any one time, I think it's 2.

I had sedation and having never had a GA I can't compare the two but I was definitely out for the count and felt nothing.

Emmamumof2

I have looked into this but cant find an answer to this one, does anyone know:


Lets say I go ahead and they only use so many of the eggs cultivated, if the couple requested it could they freeze the rest (if we were lucky enough to produce enough) to have another child in the future with the same 'genes'.


Also, do you think its a mistake to do it in the city next to your own? I never thought through that but one of these posts made me think about it - what if my son (nearly 9) meets a girl 10 years his junior and it turns out to be his half sister......JK here I come....(!) only kidding, but is that a real worry for anyone who has been through this - donor or recipient, would you worry re: location? LilElvis is this something you thought about at all?


I guess it'd have to be local to get to the clinic often enough....

LilElvis

Emmamumof2 wrote: »

I have looked into this but cant find an answer to this one, does anyone know:


Lets say I go ahead and they only use so many of the eggs cultivated, if the couple requested it could they freeze the rest (if we were lucky enough to produce enough) to have another child in the future with the same 'genes'.


Also, do you think its a mistake to do it in the city next to your own? I never thought through that but one of these posts made me think about it - what if my son (nearly 9) meets a girl 10 years his junior and it turns out to be his half sister......JK here I come....(!) only kidding, but is that a real worry for anyone who has been through this - donor or recipient, would you worry re: location? LilElvis is this something you thought about at all?


I guess it'd have to be local to get to the clinic often enough....

Hi Emma,

Sorry - I only saw your pm just now and was planning on answering it tomorrow when little miss is at nursery! Annoyed that there wasnt some sort of notification.

I'll try to answer the above questions first!

Yes, a recipient can freeze any unused embryos, and yes these could then become full siblings. This of course depends on whether the 'fresh' ones worked - it didn't for us and our little girl was one of the two embryos which were frozen for a few months. Sadly IVF is not a guarantee of success and only about 1/3 of cycles do work. Even if ours hadn't then I would still have been immensely grateful that our donor had given us a chance.

The link below to the HFEA site will hopefully allay any fears you may have about your children possibly entering into a relationship with a genetic half-sibling. It isn't something which concerned me as the number of children born through egg donation is very, very small so the chances of such a relationship are absolutely miniscule. I have even less cause for worry now that I know that our donor has girls herself and all the children born through her donation are also girls.

http://www.hfea.gov.uk/5526.html

Hope this helps and I will answer your pm tomorrow when I have more time.