Survival Tips To Help You Through Your Donor Egg Cycle – Part 2 of a 3 Part Series
Have you just received the news from your doctor that the best chances for you to become a parent is with the help of an egg donor? If so you’re not alone. You might be feeling bewildered, angry, sad, and definitely overwhelmed. Above all we bet you have a lot of questions.
Below you will find some great survival tips that will help you throughout your egg donor cycle.
As you embark upon your egg donor selection please remember above all that the baby that you’re meant to have is the baby that your meant to have. This part of the process can be incredibly overwhelming. Because of this it’s important that intended parents are clear about their own criteria. This isn’t the time to worry about hurting someone’s feelings because you don’t like what you see. Do your homework, research, ask questions, and if something doesn’t sit well, listen to your gut. And whatever you do don’t be led to believe that the more you pay for an egg donor the better the egg donor your receive. That’s not the way it works. At the end of the day, the child you have via this process is the child you’re meant to have, and will be the most amazing, beautiful, perfect child you’ve ever seen.
Hire a Reproductive Attorney to create a legal contract. Even if you should decide to use your clinic’s egg donor pool and all they require is the informed consent agreement, get a legal contract between yourself and your egg donor. Why? To protect you and your egg donor. One of the industry’s leading reproductive lawyers Amy Demma says: “The most compelling reason for you to hire an attorney is to protect, from a legal standpoint, the family you are trying so very hard to build … why risk it?”
Don’t be intimidated by the egg donor legal agreement. We know it’s a big long complicated document, in fact it’s about 25 pages long, however, what’s inside this document is extraordinarily important. This document will state clearly what your egg donor is agreeing to. It will state that she is giving up any legal rights to any child or children born of the egg donation cycle, and she has no legal status within your family. The legal contract addresses all kinds of other items that your clinic’s informed consent will not, such as: egg donor compensation, how much and when she will receive her money. It also address what happens if something goes wrong during the cycle – for instance if the donor should bail on the cycle and stop coming to appointments or stop taking her medication. A legal contract will address the communication between you and your egg donor. If you have decided upon an open donation cycle the contract will discuss how you will contact the egg donor should you need to or want to in the future – or if your child should want to meet the egg donor. None of this is ever addressed completely and thoroughly when using clinic consents. And last but not least remember, a clinic consent is not a contract. Always seek the advice of a reproductive attorney and make sure that your egg donor has access to her own reproductive attorney.
For more information on IVF with egg donation, The Donor Source is here to guide you through your journey. Contact us at (949) 872-2800 or toll free in the US at: (877) 375-8888. One of our caring and highly skilled case managers will be happy to help you navigate this sometimes difficult maze.
