I had always thought about being an egg donor. It probably sounds a bit funny but even as a teenager, and well before I was a Mum, I liked the idea of being a donor to help someone have a baby.
I have a really close friend who had been going through IVF for some time and they were having trouble. She was really open with me about what she was going through, and from the beginning I made it clear to her and her husband that if they needed an egg or surrogate at any point, I would love to help. After they had been through four IVF cycles they were at the point where it was their last chance to try and get pregnant. They decided to take me up on my offer of egg donation.
I have two sons, but their Dad and I had split up at the time when I made the decision to help them. He had known previously that I had wanted to donate my eggs and was ok about that, but I still wanted to let him know what I was planning to do now that things were getting to the stage of actually donating my eggs. Our boys are young, but I am very close with my friend needing help, so no doubt they will have questions about it later on when they know more about it. I wanted my ex-partner to be on board. He was again really supportive and said, “It’s your body and your choice what you decide to do”.
Once we made the decision to go ahead with egg donation, I found the process quick and really straight forward. It was so simple that at the end it was a little bit like, ‘Is that it?’. Because I am type 1 diabetic, I went to a diabetes specialist to see if there would be any risk of my eggs carrying a gene for diabetes. The test results came back and we were given the all clear with less than 5% chance that the eggs could carry it.
Once my friends and I knew that the risk was so low, I had full blood tests, and then counselling sessions together and separately. This helped us to make sure we were all on the same page about expectations once the baby was born. I guess for me giving my eggs is a little bit like giving blood. I’m able to help someone with a small part of what I have, to help them achieve what they want. I feel lucky I can help.
On egg collection day, my doctor at Repromed, Karen, collected eight eggs. Of those eight eggs, three were inseminated and became embryos and were frozen for later use. Karen was amazing, she made me feel comfortable and ok about the whole process. Everyone was so approachable, I felt that I was able ask any of the staff for anything. I felt they all genuinely cared about our success.
In terms of my friend’s journey, she has had one of the embryos implanted recently, but unfortunately this one wasn’t successful. Because of the friendship we have, she’s been very much in touch with me about how things are going and it’s nice to a part of that. Hopefully with some planned lifestyle changes, the next attempt will achieve the desired outcome for her and her partner. There are two embryos frozen to be used later.
I’m so happy to have done this, and would do it again in a heartbeat knowing the full process and how easy it was. I am very hopeful for success and can’t wait to be able to see my friends enjoy kids of their own.
If you would like to find out more about being a donor – egg, embryo or sperm – see our Become a donor page here. We’re here to help, so please get in touch with our donor team to discuss your options further or you can book a free 15 minute phone consultation with a fertility doctor to discuss your situation.
Individual results may vary dependant on your personal circumstances.
