Choosing Our Egg Donor

If you have ever tried online dating then you have an idea

how strange and bizarre it is to choose an egg donor.

Once Chris and I paid our registration fee and had all our tests completed we were given full access to the available donors at My Egg Bank.

We were then able to narrow down the donors according to their race, hair colour, eye colour, and even blood type. Once it was narrowed down we could then click and read a medical history, personal questionnaire and even see photos of the donor as a child.

Chris and I had many conversations about the criteria we wanted to use in order to choose our donor eggs.

The top things that we were looking for were:

good health history, appearance and intelligence!

To clarify by appearance we were looking for someone who looked as much like me as possible. We searched for someone with the same hair and eye colour, as well as a similar height.

For intelligence, Chris wanted it to be someone who shared my love of literature and the arts... as he said there will be enough of an analytical engineer brain coming from him!

After searching for several days we narrowed it down to two candidates: one that was most like me physically, and a second that wrote the most amazing responses.

We ended up going with the donor who had, what we felt, were the most heart felt answers. The answer that really sealed our decision was the one in which she was asked why she was donating.

In her response she talked about focusing on her career and perhaps needed to use the program in the future. She also talked about the fact that she was not raised by her biological father, and therefore, understands that "parental love transcends genetics". She went on to say "Genetics aren't what binds the parent-child relationship, love and nurturing are."

Honestly is that not the best response ever?!

Its not cheap!

You may be curious to just how much it costs. I thought I would break it down as much as I could.

The costs of course vary for different clinics, but I would imagine that they would be similar- at least throughout Canada.

Although, the cost are ridiculously expensive, because we are doing a frozen donor egg cycle, it is significantly less expensive then a fresh donor cycle. (It is also the only option that we have.)

Registration Fee-                                    $825.00   

Vitrified Egg Donor IVF Cycle-            $5750.00
Donor Eggs                                            $11000.00 (US Dollars)
Shipping of Eggs                                   $1030.00
Mock Cycle                                           $250.00 (didn't need to do this)
Drug Costs                                             $500.00 to $2400.00
Embryo Cryopreservation                      $925.00
Thawing & Replacing frozen embryos  $1280.0

Who ever said having a baby isn't cheap wasn't exaggerating! But it will be worth it!

At this time I don't know the exact costs as I'm not sure how much the drugs are going to cost me. I am really fortunate to have really good coverage through my work.

*All the prices are in Canadian dollars except of course the donor eggs which is American dollars.

Egg Donation

Egg donation... I've had a lot of people asking me what it even means.

Egg donation is when a woman donates her eggs to a woman who is unable to conceive using her own. The donor eggs are then inseminated with the husband's sperm (or from the sperm of a donor). The fertilized eggs are then implanted via IVF into the woman's womb.

So this means:

Genetically the child will be Chris's, but genetically the child will not be mine.

I will, however, be able to carry, give birth and nurse this child.

By law, I will be considered the child's biological mother- as I am the one who will carry and give birth to him or her.

And the best part, if it's successful, we could become pregnant next month! We wouldn't have to wait three or four years, but hopefully only 10 months!

In Canada it is illegal to purchase eggs from a woman, however, somehow it is legal to purchase them from a woman in the United States???

I believe the get around it by the fact that we actually purchase the eggs from the clinic.

The Regional Fertility Program here in Calgary collaborates with  My Egg Bank in the United States. The eggs are frozen and transported to the clinic here where they remain frozen until the time for them to be fertilized.

We purchase 6 eggs from one single donor. It costs $11 000 US dollar for the 6 eggs.

The survival rate of the eggs is over 90%, and the Egg Bank guarantees at least 4 eggs. However, if only 3 eggs survive and we get pregnant with one of them it is still considered a success.

The success rates for an IVF with donor eggs is around 66%.

Embryo Adoption

Chris and I are on the embryo adoption wait list. 

What is Embryo adoption?

Well when couples go through IVF, the woman will often produce over 10 eggs. This means there are sometimes extra embryos that remain after the first transfer and are frozen for later use. If a couple is able to have all the children they want and still have embryos remaining they may choose to donate their remaining embryos to couples who are unable to conceive. 

This allows other couples to experience pregnancy and the birth of a child. It also allows them to raise a child from birth. These are typically closed adoptions in which the genetic parents sign over all rights to their embryos.

Initially I was so excited for Chris and I to get into this program.  

Some things I didn't realize were:

The wait time. You are on a wait list for a year and a half to two years.

The success rate. The success rate is only around 33%. (At first I was ok with this as it is higher than our chances with my eggs, however, it is still less than a 50% chance of success). The reason the rate is lower is that couples will have chosen the best embryos for themselves and donate the remaining which are typically of a lower quality.

So if you haven't already guessed, although Chris and I are still on the wait list for this, we have decided to purchase eggs from the States. More details in my next post.