Possible Obstacles with Egg Donation

As Intended Parents who are seeking the assistance of an Egg Donor to help make your family dreams come true, it's important to remember this is a human process, and as such there are no guarantees. While finding you a committed egg donor is Egg Helpers' top priority, sometimes unforeseen circumstances may arise as she moves through the various donation stages. We wanted to share with some of the possible obstacles that may come up along your path to parenthood.

Once a woman has applied to be an egg donor, she must successfully complete our screening process before her profile become available to Intended Parents. During her screening at the fertility center, she will undergo a psychosocial assessment with a fertility counsellor and discuss the medical implications of donating with a fertility nurse. We inform our donors how to prepare for these meetings with any questions they may have about the process so they will be educated about medications, the retrieval procedure, and any possible complications. We also ask our donors to consider how the practical, day to day aspects of donation may temporarily affect their lives, as well as what the overall act of donation means to them on a personal level.

Egg Helpers wants its donors to feel supported, educated and confident in their decision. We try our best to answer any other questions they may have and we offer as much support as possible. While we encourage our donors to ask these tough questions, we understand when the answers they receive may prohibit them from moving forward with the process. At this point, some donors may feel that egg donation is not right for them. If this turns out to be the case, we encourage these women to revisit our program in 3-6 months after they've had more time to process this information. We often find that donors just need a bit more time to unpack this information before deciding to continue, and we do our best to be respectful and patient.

Alternatively, while the donor may feel sure of herself and continue forward with the donation, unexpected medical issues may arise. For example:

• The clinic may need the donor to go for more intensive bloodwork due to her ethnic origin or background. At the screening stage, clinics are only looking at her basic bloodwork, but once a donor has been selected by her Intended Parents, more genetic testing is required.
• Sometimes previous donors have every intention to proceed with a second or third donation with you, but upon further consideration the doctor may not see them as a suitable candidate for you either genetically or based previous donation results.
• Since Egg Helpers is not an egg bank, your donor has not previously frozen her oocytes. Since this woman will be experiencing the donation with you through an ongoing basis, there can be issues in terms of timing. Some examples of this include donor's experiencing a late menses or not getting her period when she anticipated, which may lengthen your donation cycle.
• Additionally, many of our donors are students and young career women who are travelling the world to go after their dreams. Due to threats like the recent Zika virus, some donors may need to go through a quarantine process which could impact your timeline.

While there are many different situations that may be disappointing in terms of delays and disqualification, it is of the utmost importance to Egg Helpers to not only look out for your best interests, but also the the interests of any future child that may result from this process. Our team takes it upon themselves to ensure you're working with a donor who is educated and committed to the process. We try our best to turn obstacles into opportunities, and even though things may go as planned with one donor, we make it our mission to find you another who is just as amazing as your original choice.