Read our Q&A with a recent egg donor to learn what it takes and what you can expect if you’re interested in becoming a donor.
Getting pregnant or staying pregnant isn’t the same process for everyone. From Denver to Colorado Springs, Fort Collins to Vail, and everywhere in between, many hopeful parents need the help of an egg donor and IVF to build their family. Unfortunately, there’s a shortage of women coming forward to be egg donors mainly due to a lack of information about the process.
To help shed some light on becoming an egg donor, Colorado Egg Donation, the donor egg team at Conceptions Reproductive Associates of Colorado sat down with one of our recent egg donors to learn about their experience. “Sue” has been an egg donor four times in the last few years helping hopeful patients become parents.
Thank you, “Sue”, for talking with us about being an egg donor. Donating your eggs to someone trying to get pregnant is a special gift to give, what made you want to become an egg donor?
I’m a person who likes to give back and have a family of my own. I know how important family is to me. I’ve been very lucky in my life and want to share when and how I can. I don’t have a lot of money to give away, but I wanted to give somebody the opportunity to start a family.
Knowing that the couples that I’ve donated my eggs to are now parents is an awesome feeling. It just made me feel like I was doing something good. Family to me is everything, and I wanted to be able to help someone else experience that feeling.
When did you donate your eggs the first time?
It’s been a couple of years, maybe 3-4 years ago. I think 2018.
So, the idea of giving back was a huge motivator for you, what do you love about being a donor?
It’s definitely hard work. You must give yourself injections every day, and you have to be consistent with it, but you have a team of people at Conceptions helping the whole way. There’s not one moment where you feel like you don’t know something, because if you don’t, you just call the nurse line, and you’ll have your questions answered. I liked donating my eggs because I was able to help somebody have a family for themselves.
Let’s go back to 3-4 years ago, what was the process like in the beginning?
So, you have to do a lot of health testing, genetic testing, family history, it’s very very detailed. And it should be. As a donor, I felt very safe working with my nurse at Conceptions. I wanted my gift to matter and make a difference. The level of attention they gave me made me feel even more confident about the egg donor process.
It also it showed me a lot of things I didn’t know about my medical history which help with my own health story. Nothing too significant but good to know.
Donors are also compensated financially, how did you view this aspect? Was the money a motivator for you or was it something nice to have? Would you have done it without the compensation?
It’s nice but for me it wasn’t about the money. I didn’t know there was compensation until I started. It wasn’t on my checklist when I started this process, but now I’ve been able to save a little, and I have a family of my own, so it’s been helpful.
What do you think it takes emotionally to be an egg donor?
A lot of people have asked me this before, and my perspective is that there’s a huge difference between donating the egg versus carrying the baby. I don’t see the process; I don’t know what goes on. I honestly just have my mind go straight to the fact that I’m helping someone start a family.
At the end of the day, it would be harder carrying my own baby, and I know that by donating my eggs, I’m helping someone to create their own family. I think when you go into it thinking negative things, you’ll bring negative stuff upon yourself. I have family members that are not able to have kids, or they’ve been trying so hard, and they can’t get pregnant.
From the perspective of being someone on the other side, I try and think about if I couldn’t have a baby, and someone was able to help me do that by donating their eggs.
What kind of person is better suited to be an egg donor?
Very compassionate, altruistic, selfless, and has time on their hands. The process requires a fair amount of time from the initial screening to being matched with an intended parent, to stimulation, and then egg retrieval.
Can you tell us more about the egg donation process?
Because I had already donated a couple of times before, I just reported my menstrual cycle to the nurses on this last donation cycle. Then, based on the timing of my cycle, I would be matched with someone looking for an egg donor. The second or third day of my cycle, I would come in for an ultrasound, and then would do all of my injections. It took about one month for the whole process.
And what should a first-time donor expect? 30 days of screening and blood work, making sure that they’re healthy, and then waiting to be matched? Maybe another month to 60 days?
It depends, finding a match is a bit of a process. After you donate, you have to wait at least three months before they find a match. Sometimes it takes that long, but sometimes it happens really fast.
You said you felt supported through the entire process by the donor team. I think a lot of donors think they’re on their own and don’t realize they have an entire team of people with them that they can call, right?
Totally! The donor team at Conceptions was wonderful. I built friendships and I trusted the nurses a lot. The amount of knowledge from the time I went to get my labs done, them explaining the process to me, to getting the ultrasounds, to them calling me with my results, was helpful.
Even each day doing the injections, I knew exactly what needed to happen. There was never a question of what should happen, and that made the process easy. Everyone was so nice and so understanding. If they don’t have the answer right away, they always get back to you. You get constant support from them; you have a team!
How important was the idea of being an anonymous egg donor?
It’s very important. But for me, if the child wanted to know more about their background, I think I’m open to that in the future. In the beginning, being anonymous was super important to me.
What would you say to parents who have benefitted from egg donors such as yourself?
I don’t know, I think it’s emotional for me. It’s awesome- to have enough to give to someone else. At the end of the day, I’m happy that they were able to create their family.
And what would you say to someone who wanted to become an egg donor but was maybe hesitant about doing so?
Do it! Make the call to see if it’s right for you. Everything has a risk involved, but the chances of risk when you donate are very low. It’s something good. It was a great experience for me. I never had anything negative happen, and it was just a really good experience for me to have. I would do it more if I could!
