Guide to Egg Donation

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And the Rockin Girl Blogger Award Goes to...
2007-07-01 04:53:00
Today's meme was inspired by MamaSaga, a righteous mommy blogger who entertains me with stories of babywearing and breastfeeding and who asks her readers to pass on the Rockin Girl Blogger s Award to five worthy recipients (I nominated six because I have commitment issues and am a nonconformist). Here goes (in no particular order)!PCOS BabyDoctor MamaFlotsamWelcome to CysterhoodIt Could Take Three MonthsInfertility SucksCopy this groovy button and pass it on to 5 more girl bloggers. Rock on, ladies!
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Pregnancy Rates Using Donor Eggs
2007-07-01 00:06:00
BackgroundIn the United States, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) collects data from fertility clinics on their pregnancy rates for infertility treatments such as IVF, PCG, and ICSI. In these surveys, the success rate is defined as the percentage of a particular treatment that results in a pregnancy and live birth. Recently I have received many questions about the pregnancy rates using donor eggs, so I thought I would do some research. Since the CDC takes some time to analyze the data, the most recent CDC data comes from 2004. I've summarized the results below.Success Rate s for IVF (in vitro fertilization) Using Dono r Eggs There were a total of 9,283 ART cycles using fresh embryos conceived from donor eggs. The success rate was 50.5 percent, meaning that 4,641 ART cycles resulted in a pregnancy with a live birth. There were a total of 4,439 ART cycles using frozen embryos concieved from donor eggs. The success rate was 30.5 percent, meaning that 1,331 ART cycles resulted in a p...
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Donor Egg Program Specializes African-American Egg Donors
2007-06-30 21:15:00
As I've noted elsewhere, in the United States, there is a shortage of African -American egg donors. At many donor egg agencies, infertile couples looking for African-American and other racially diverse egg donors are often encouraged to place themselves on waiting lists and to sign up at more than one egg donor program. No doubt this situation adds to the stress and anxiety of Black aspiring parents who are already dealing with the emotional challenges of infertility.That's why I was pleased to find F. Williams Donor Egg Services, an egg donation agency that specializes in African-American egg donors. In fact, they have more 30 smart, attractive donors in their database.In addition to helping Black couples find racially diverse egg donors, they also have a unique guarantee for their infertility services. On their web page, they note thatOur fees are reasonable and our service fee is a one time fee. If you are not successful with your first donor, (success to us means walking into y...
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Surrogacy Forums and Message Boards
2007-06-17 23:37:00
The other day I was looking around online for information about becoming a surrogate mother, and I was impressed by the information contained in some of the surrogacy forums and message boards, and I realized that a listing of them would be helpful here. It would also complement my previous posts about infertility forums and message boards and egg donation blogs. AllAboutSurrogacy.com - A very interesting web site that is home to multiple messageboards about surrogacy, including "Ask a Gestational Surrogate" and "Ask a Parent via Surrogacy". Surrogacy.com - Hosted by The American Surrogacy Center (TASC), this is another surrogacy forum with multiple message boards. A good place to find out about becoming a surrogate mother and surrogacy laws. IVF.ca - A Canadian forum where available surrogates and aspiring parents can meet up. FertileThoughts.com - Lively discussion of all things surrogate, including the ethics and morality of surrogacy, its various pros and cons, its costs, and su...
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New York Egg Donor Agency Finds Jewish Egg Donors
2007-06-16 23:08:00
I just finished reading this New York Magazine article about the lengths people will go to to find Jewish egg donors. I discovered that there are at least two New York egg donor agencies that specialize in finding Jewish egg donors--all the way over in Israel. Why so far away? Because there are many more Jewish egg donation recipients than there are Jewish American egg donors. Judi Fleishman, founder of the Ovum Registry, a Manhattan-based egg donor agency says she got the idea for an egg donation agency specializing in Israeli donors when doctors kept asking her if she could recommend any Jewish egg donors. She couldn't, so she placed classified ads in Israeli newspapers and was flooded with applicants.She's not alone. Ruth Tavor, director of donor agency New York LifeSpring, says she works with more than 15 greater New York City hospitals whom she supplies with exclusively Israeli Jewish eggs."Fleishman has a theory. 'Americans are very phobic about taking hormones—they do a ...
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Embryo Donation and Adoption Defined
2007-06-16 20:53:00
What is embryo donation?When people undergo fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), they often create more human embryos than they can use. Since these embryos are cryopreserved (frozen), they can be used to help other people concieve. Thus, many IVF patients are choosing to allow their embryos to be used by others unable to concieve. This process is defined as embryo donation.How much does embryo donation cost?Most fertility centers don't charge a fee to those who donate embryos, the genetic parents. Are embryo donors paid like egg donors?No, embryo donors are not paid like egg donors. It is a non-profit affair.Can embry donors select the embryo recipients?Yes, most fertility clinics and donation centers allow embryo donors to select among embryo recipients.Do embryo donors have to relinquish their parental rights to their embryos?Yes, they relinquish their parental rights to the embryo recipient parents.What is the success rate of frozen embryo transfer (FET) u...
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How to Get More Visitors to Your Egg Donation or Infertility Blog
2007-06-16 00:25:00
I just found out about a new web site called WriteAbout.Us that gives bloggers a free link on their homepage if you write about them (just like I'm doing in this post). Writing about WriteAbout.Us is a great way to increase the number of incoming links to your egg donation and infirtility blogs. If your blog hasn't been indexed yet, this is also a great way to get indexed.
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IVF Vacation Tours Abroad Gaining Popularity
2007-06-15 20:57:00
Thanks to IVFvacations.com and travel agencies like it, you can now book a trip to South Africa or the Czech Republic to undergoe infertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization, ICSI, PCG and egg donation.As the costs for IVF and similar infertility treatments skyrockets in the US, cash-strapped patients are beginning to look internationally for more affordable medical care. The medical tourism trend has been popular for a while, with people going overseas to countries like Thailand, Italy, and South Africa for affordable tummy tucks and cheap face lifts. Medical travel overseas for infertility treatments is merely one part of the larger medical tourism trend.The benefit of taking an IVF vacation can be summed in three words: It costs less. How much less? According to this article, "By traveling abroad for fertility procedures, women can pay thousands of dollars less than what they'd spend at home." Not a bad deal for price-conscious consumers. One American couple who travel...
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Microsoft Thinks Infertility Is a "Girl Thing"
2007-06-10 23:39:00
If you asked me for evidence that American culture associates infertility with femininity, I'd point you to the Microsoft AdCenter Demographics Prediction Tool, an online tool that tries to predict the personal qualities of particular words you type into it. For example, if you type in "makeup" the tool tells you that that word is 77 percent "female-oriented" (their language, not mine).Feeling a bit curious, I typed in the word "infertility". What do you think it told me? Infertility is 75 percent "female-oriented."Clearly, infertility affects both men and women-ever hear of male factor infertility or low sperm mobility? I know men and women sometimes use different words. Fuschia, lovely, and mascara belong to women more than men, and dirty, bald and boxing belong to men more than women. But still, I was angry.After fuming for a few minutes, I realized that it's not the tool that's wrong, it's the culture. Our culture still sees infertility as a "girl thing" and something men do...
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Let's Exchange Technorati Favorites (a la DoshDosh)
2007-06-10 20:19:00
I'm now exchanging Technorati Favorite s with anyone who adds me to their favorites.Recently blog marketing guru DoshDosh started a meme suggesting that fledgling blogs (like this one) try a Technorati Favorites Exchange in order to get more readers from Technorati. The goal is to get into the Top 100 Most Favorited Blogs at Technorati. Unlike Technorati's Top 100 Most Linked-To Blogs, the Top 100 Most Favorited Blogs is simply a list of blogs ranked by how many people have added them to their Technorati favorites. That means you'd need only 200 or so people to favorite you to get on their list. How it works1. You add me to your Technorati favorites or use this button: 2. Let me know you added me by leaving a comment on the bottom of this page with your URL. 3. I'll check the comments daily and return the favor by adding your blog to my favorites within 24 hours.4. This is great for both of us, and we'll both get more traffic from Technorati.Optional: Get a free link back to yo...
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Infertility: The Symptoms We Don't Talk About
2007-06-09 23:55:00
Pamela Jeanne over at Coming2Terms wrote a post about Infertility's Collateral Damage, the un-talked about ways that infertility sucks for infertile people. She realized that, as an infertile woman "I find myself exhausted quite often as a result of the energy used in the constant surveillance of pregnant women and mommies (Momzillas to be more precise). She gives this example: "When I arrived at the office I came smack into contact with a colleague nearly seven months pregnant all belly and smock topped with her second child. A cavalcade of emotions ensued, morphing from surprise to panic to anger and then to resignation."I've heard this story from many different infertile women-and a handful of infertile men, so I love that we finally have a term for it.Do you suffer from Infertility's Collateral Damage? If so, how does it affect you?
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Infertility Message Boards and Forums
2007-06-09 04:00:00
I get a lot of emails asking if I can help people find a message board or forum about some aspect of infertility. So I thought I would compile a list of popular message boards and forums for the infertility community. I've written about egg donation blogs elsewhere.Infertility Support Group Resolve.org - RESOLVE: The National Infertility AssociationFemale Infertility HealthBoards.com FertileThoughts.com IVF-Infertility.com FertilityForums .com SheKnows.com iVillage.com FertilityNeighborhood.com Fertility Sisters MSN Group eHealthForum.com MedHelp.org Looking to be a mom through egg donation @ Network54.comIVF IVF & High Tech @ FertileThoughts.com IVF @ IVF-infertility.com Infertility Treatments @ FertilityCommunity.com In Vitro Fertilization @ SheKnows.comIUI Intrauterine Injection (IUI) @ SheKnows.comMale Infertility UrologyChannel.com Male Factor @ FertileThoughts.comSperm and Egg Donation Issues Donor Issues @ FertileThoughts.com Egg and Embryo Donation @ IVF-infertility.com Egg...
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Clomid Remains Top Choice for Helping Infertile Women Get Pregnant
2007-06-08 23:06:00
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common cause of female infertility, keeping thousands of women from having children of their own. Until recently, doctors have been split about how to treat PCOS. One group favors Clomid (known as clomiphene in the United States and Clomifene internationally), while the other group favors Metformin (which also goes by the names Glucophage, Diabex, Diaformin, Fortamet, Riomet, and Glumetza). A recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine answers that question. In it, researchers compared Clomid to Metformin as treatments for PCOS, and found that Clomid was the more effective infertility treatment. The study followed a total of 626 infertile women with PCOS, and found that the pregnancy rate was three times higher with clomiphene.Side effects of ClomidAlthough clomid was found to be more effective than Metformin at helping women get pregnant, the drug does have some side effects. According to one researcher, "Multiple birth...
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Step-By-Step Procedures Used in Egg Donation, Part 2
2007-06-08 20:37:00
This is the second article in the series Step -By-Step Procedures Used in Egg Donation .In Part 1 of this series, we learned about the first four steps of the egg donation process: Egg donor recruitment, medical and psychological screening, selection by the donor egg recipients (the aspiring parents), and writing a legal egg donation contract.In this post, we will learn much more about egg donation, especially the medical procedures used to regulate and stimulate ovulation and the egg harvesting procedure.Step Five: Prep the Egg Donor's Ovaries with Ovarian Hyperstimulation. In the ovarian hyperstimulation procedure, egg donors receive a series of hormone drugs which cause her ovaries to produce multiple mature eggs during one menstrual cycle. The drugs prescribed in this phase are called gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist analogues.Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Agonist Analogues These fertility drugs are used to suppress the release of luteinizing hormone (LH) by the pituitary ...

Gay Men Becoming Parents Through Egg Donation and Surrogacy
2007-06-05 01:39:00
Circle Surrogacy posted this short video about becoming parents though egg donation and gestational surrogacy on YouTube and I thought I would pass it along. The speakers cover a range of issues surrounding egg donation and surrogacy, such as: How having children can test your relationship How to choose the right egg donor How to interact with your gestational surrogate/carrier Success rates for egg donation Motivations behind becoming an egg donor or gestational surrogateFor more information about Circle Surrogacy, click here.
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Houston Fertility Clinic Patients Battle Over Frozen Embryos
2007-06-03 22:23:00
A Houston , Texas couple's fight over their frozen embryos has heated up again.When Randy and Augusta Roman were married, they enlisted the help of a fertility clinic for IVF. The IVF procedure produced three embryos from their own sperm and eggs. However, shortly after the embryos were made, Randy decided to halt the procedure and the couple divorced. In 2004, Augusta asked the court for possession of the embryos, and the court agreed. Randy appealed the decision, and two years later it was reversed. The judge noted that Augusta and Randy both signed a contract agreeing to have the fertility clinic “discard” the embryos in the event of their divorce.Now it seems Augusta is going to take the case to the Texas Supreme Court. Her attorney, Rebecca Reitz, said the issue that thecourt is being asked to address is whether women have a constitutional right to their own eggs, particularly women like Augusta who cannot become pregnant in the traditional way.What do you think? Who should...
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Sperm Donors Make Less Than Egg Donors
2007-06-03 18:14:00
Although the nature of the genetic material is different, sperm donors and egg donors both contribute equally to the making of a child. Yet according to one UCLA researcher, they are treated very differently, and male sperm donors are valued less than female egg donors.In a recent interview, UCLA sociologist Rene Almeling says that:“Men donors are paid less for a much longer time commitment and a great deal of personal inconvenience,” she said. “They also are much less prepared for the emotional consequences of serving as a donor of reproductive material. Women, meanwhile, are not only paid more for a much shorter time commitment, they are repeatedly thanked for ‘giving the gift of life.’“From compensation rates to the smallest details of donor relations, sperm donors are less valued than egg donors,” Almeling said. “Egg donors are treated like gold, while sperm donors are perceived as a dime a dozen.”Considering the time committments and responsibilities, egg dono...
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Egg Donation Blogs
2007-05-25 01:17:00
Here's a list of egg donation blogs I visit. As you can see, there are quite a few blogs written by egg recipients than by egg donors. I've excluded web sites for egg donor agencies and fertility clinics, because I have a listing of those here. What would you add to this list?Egg Donor Blogs Egg Donation http://eggdonor.blogspot.com/Desc ription: After 18 months of trying, two miscarriages and a very rough pregnancy - Kathryn Elizabeth has arrived. We're now savoring every moment and finding extreme joy in something we struggled so hard to achieve.Expecting a Baby...Someday http://expectingababy.blogspot.com/ Description: Over 3 years we have struggled through 3 IUI's, 2 IVF's, a FET, several RE's, hudreds of appointments and the loss of two little angels, now we find ourselves PREGNANT WITH TWINS!!! Happy To Be - http://happytobe.typepad.com - Description: Blog written by a former egg donor.Donor Egg Recpient BlogsHard Boiledhttp://donoregg.blogspot.com/Descri ption: My ovaries d...
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60 Year Old Mother of Twins Defends Choice to Have Kids
2007-05-24 23:34:00
In an interview on this morning's Today Show, 60-year-old new mother of twins Frida Birnbaum defended women' right and preogative to have children at whatever age they wish. On May 22, Birnbaum gave birth to twin boys, both healthy.Speaking about people who disagree with her decision to have kids at 60 years old, Birnbaum said:“I think those people need to get ready for what's coming up in our society. Whenever there's anything new, people cannot comprehend or have difficult getting comfortable ... There are a lot of middle-aged women [having babies] — 40s, 50s, now I just turned 60. That's going to be acceptable. They have to just keep up with what's going on with society.”I like the part at the end of the article:"Earlier this year, a woman in Spain delivered twins at age 67, believed to be a world record. Birnbaum is believed to hold the title of oldest new mom in the United States."While I agree with those who think 60 is pretty old to become a mom, I would have a ha...
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Step-By-Step Procedures Used in Egg Donation, Part 1
2007-05-24 19:07:00
I've found that even though many women know what an egg donor is in a general sense, they wish they knew more specifics about how to become an egg donor and the steps involved. In this post, you will find out about the major phases of an egg donation cycle and the medical and non-medical procedures used in each phase.Step One: Recruitment. The first step in your journey of becoming an egg donor is finding an egg donor agency or fertility clinic that has a donor egg program. Not all fertility clinics have donor egg programs, but most work with egg donor agencies. Click here to find fertility clinics and egg donor agencies in your area. Once you have chosen which organization you would like to work with, it's time to apply. Written applications are very long. They ask about the medical history of you and your family, your high school GPA, college GPA, employment history, clubs you belong to, volunteer activities, personal interests and hobbies. They even ask about your history of se...
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60 Year-Old Woman Gives Birth to Twins
2007-05-23 22:38:00
How old is too old when it comes to getting pregnant and giving birth? Before the advent of in vitro fertilization or egg donation, this would not be a real question. Not anymore, however.On May 22. 60 year old New Jersey resident Freida Birnbaum gave birth to twin boys at Hackensack University Medical Center. Experts believe Birnbaum is the oldest woman to give birth in the United States; she gave birth by caesarean section.According to MSNBC:Birnbaum, a psychologist from Saddle River, underwent in-vitro fertilization last year in Cape Town, South Africa, at a center that specializes in older women. She and her husband, Ken, a New York attorney, have been married for 38 years and have three other children — sons ages 6 and 33 and a daughter, 29.The new mom wasn't available for comments, and it is not known if she used her own eggs or donated eggs to conceive. With the ability to cryogenically freeze eggs, women can save eggs and use them later. In a bizarre coincidence, a year a...
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Should Anonymous Egg Donors Be Called Egg Sellers?
2007-05-21 21:17:00
Should anonymous egg donors be called egg sellers?I think it's strange that egg donors are called donors. For women who donate eggs to family or friends, without the exchange of money, I understand why using "donor" is appropriate. But for anonymous egg donors, who are compensated with money for their efforts and time, the word "donor" seems a bit of a misnomer. In almost every other context, a donor means a volunteer who works for free. And women sharing "donor eggs" don't work for free—they make money.To be clear, I am not suggesting that anonymous egg donors should not be paid, or that they are undeserving of money or respect. I am suggesting that we should think about distinguishing between women who share their eggs with family, friends, or other loved ones for free and those who share eggs for money. I think there is one big difference between the two groups: Known egg donors typically donate eggs only once, while those who do so for money often do not. For example, thi...
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Use of Donor Eggs Soars in United States
2007-05-21 01:26:00
In 2003, more than 12,000 in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures using donor eggs were performed in the United Stat es , resulting in more than 5,700 children born from donated eggs. And that's 10 percent more than the year before. In total, more than 115,000 children have been born in the US from using donated eggs. Why are so many women in the United States using donor eggs? That's easy: Infertility is a widespread medical problem.According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 7 percent of married couples suffer from infertility, which is defined as having sexual intercourse for a year without contraception and not getting pregnant. And many women with infertility problems can use donor eggs, get pregnant, and have a baby, making their wish to have a child come true. As far as success rates, the CDC estimates that about 50 percent of the fertility treatments that use donor eggs result in a live birth. Obviously, that makes for a lot of sad hopeful parents, but a fair number ...
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How Much Money Are Your Eggs Worth?
2007-05-21 00:01:00
According to a recent article in the New York Times which reported on a recent study of egg donation programs, American egg donors earn an average of $4,200 per cycle, and probably earn more — since several donor agencies in the study failed to report how much they pay their egg donors.In a previous post about how much money egg donors can earn, I noted that most reputable egg donation programs pay between $5,000 and $10,000 per cycle. In general, egg donors with "exceptional" or "brilliant" qualities, such as Ivy League college educations, can ask for the highest fees, while those without such experiences are relegated to lower pay.I'm interested to know: how much money do you think your eggs are worth?
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How Much Money Can an Egg Donor Make from Donating Eggs?
2007-05-19 21:39:00
Egg donation is one of the very few jobs where females make more than males. In fact, other than modeling, I can't think of any others where women out-earn men. Of course, sperm donors don't have to stick themselves with needles and give themselves injections for weeks at a time or undergo painful egg harvesting procedures. The last I checked, sperm donors made less than $100 per deposit. Egg donors make considerably more.How much money can egg donors make?It depends. Several factors figure into an egg donor's compensation:1. What country are you in? - In the United States, egg donors can be paid for their services, while in other countries, such as New Zealand, egg donation is done without any exchange of money. 2. What region are you in? - Within the U.S., there is quite a bit of regional variaton in how much egg donors can make. In general, bigger cities seem to pay egg donors more than smaller ones. In Ohio, this egg donor program pays $3000 per cycle. In Boston, this donor p...
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Directory of U.S. Fertility Clinics and Egg Donor Agencies
2007-05-16 23:21:00
On this page you'll find a listing of every fertility clinic and egg donor agency in the U.S. that abides by the ASRM's ethics guidelines. How to Use the Director y Finding a fertility clinic or egg donor agency is easy. To locate one in your state, find your state in the list below and click on the name of your state. Email this PageYou can email this page by clicking on the small envelope icon at the bottom of the post.Complete Listing of U.S. Fertility Clinics and Egg Donation Agencies :Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticutt Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey ...
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Subscribe to the Complete Guide to Egg Donation
2007-05-16 23:00:00
There are several ways that you can keep up to date with the latest news at the Complete Guide to Egg Donation . Each option suits different people and you’re more than welcome to pick any (or all) of them.RSS FeedsFor those of you familiar with RSS and News Aggregators you can follow this blog via our RSS feed. Simply add it to your news aggregator (such as My Yahoo or Google Reader) and you’ll be notified every time we publish a new article. You can also add it to your favorites at Technorati.Email SubscriptionIf you’re not an RSS user you can get one daily email that gives you any post that has been written on the Complete Guide that day. You can unsubsribe from this this service at any point. This service is provided by a third party (Feedburner) and you can subscribe to it by leaving your email address in the following field and following the instructions.Enter Your Email Address BelowEnter your email address:Delivered by FeedBurnerPlease note - your privacy is assured wit...
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What is Egg Donation?
2007-05-15 18:21:00
What is egg donation? This is a question I am asked all the time.Egg donation is the process in which a woman gives her eggs to other people so they can have children of their own. Most of the time, egg recipients are infertile couples who cannot have children without medical help. Sometimes egg recipients are single women or men, and sometimes egg recipients combine donated eggs with the use of a gestational surrogate, a woman who agrees to get pregnant and have a baby for the intended parents.Unlike sperm donation, egg donation involves taking several drugs and undergoing a medical procedure to remove the donor's eggs. The first phase of egg donation usually involves taking drugs to synchronize the donor's menstrual cycle with the intended mother's cycle. Once synchronized, the egg donor begins taking drugs to stimulate her ovaries to make extra eggs. The final phase, called egg harvesting, involves surgically removing the eggs from the donor's ovaries. During the egg harvesti...
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The Surrogacy Center LLC
2007-05-14 02:52:00
The Surrogacy Center LLC434 S Yellowstone DriveMadison, WI 53719Phone: 608-821-8230Fax: 608-821-8201mmurphey@surrogacycenter.comh ttp://www.surrogacycenter.com
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Northwest Fertility Connection
2007-05-14 02:51:00
Northwest Fertility Connect ion 2030 Dexter Avenue NorthSuite B264Seattle, WA 98109Phone: 206-285-4855Fax: 206-285-0864nwfertility@msn.com
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