We turned to the team at OvobankID to help us explore the criteria for selecting an egg donor
Having a baby is such a personal and beautiful moment of a person’s life. Or at least, it should be. It is something we all deserve to enjoy. However, the reality is that not everyone has the same path to parenthood, and NHS figures show 1 in every 7 couples experience difficulties when trying to conceive
This amounts to a LOT of people who will turn to assisted reproduction each year, to help them make their dreams of having a baby become a reality. Each and every one of these intended parents should receive a personalised plan of action, and treatments designed accordingly. For some, this will mean becoming a parent via donor conception: using an egg or sperm donor (or even both) to achieve the desired pregnancy.
At OvobankID we understand that everyone is different, as are the reasons for pursuing donor egg IVF, and their criteria for selecting their egg donor will be likewise be individual too. There is no right or wrong way to choose a donor, but there is your way!
With this in mind, we have put our heads together with IVF Babble to ask you the important question: “What do you look for in an egg donor”, to help us find out what really is important to intended parents and help us to offer the donors, and service you require, and deserve.
The question put by IVF Babble, on Instagram, to their followers, was:
“What would you want to know about your egg donor?”
Amongst the many responses you would expect, such as personal, physical and medical information, photos and a message from the donor, there were some interesting stand out answers we would love to highlight:
- “Everything!!! Absolutely everything. We want to know if the donor resembles me (the mother) and if he or she will be like us. My husband is very sporty and I am a complete book worm. I know that our baby will love sports and reading if we nurture these activities, but it would be nice to see if the donor likes these things too. We want to know age, background, education, job, siblings, interests and attitude towards life.”
At OvobankID we are really happy to see that we are providing the kind of donor information that you want. We respect that you have already given up the genetics and that a physical match, while important, is not necessarily the most important factor in choosing your donor, and you may need to feel a more personal link to the donor as well.
Our profiles have a huge amount of information on the donor, her likes and dislikes, sports hobbies and activities, favourite foods, academic strengths and education level. Age, background, religion and marital status are all covered.
- “Any genetic issues. This is really important for us as a couple. Using a donor egg is a scary path, and once we commit to transfer, there is no turning back, so we need to know that our baby will not have health problems growing up”.
Genetic testing, along with medical, hormonal, serological and gynaecological testing is standard in donor recruitment, and all our donors are tested to see if they are carriers of any recessive genetic diseases. Genetically compatibility testing between the donor and the father (or sperm donor if also used) can also be performed for added security.
- “I would like to know if our donor had donated eggs before and how many”.
- “I would want to know why our donor donated. Was it a financial reason or a need to help couples like us?”.
Proven fertility is another important consideration. For intended parents looking to start their family using donor eggs, they may well have been through years of unsuccessful treatments, with the emotional, psychological and financial costs which go with it. Ensuring the donor already has her own children, or has previously donated, gives more security to the intended parents when making their decision. This information is standard in our donor profiles.
Many of our detailed donor profiles have a video from the donor herself, in her own language (with subtitles), as well as a short written message from the donor and her reasons for donating.
- “We would want to be reassured that our donor has no interest in ever finding our baby in the future. I would like to know if one day she plans on having her own family”.
- “Can I answer this by saying what I wouldn’t want….I don’t want our donor to live anywhere near us. I would constantly be wondering if young women I bump into could be the donor. So, I would like reassurance that the donor lives far, far away”.
This is something that seems to be important to many of you: the location of the donor and her intentions towards the future baby. OvobankID has strategic recruitment centres throughout the world. This enables us to fulfil our quest to provide donors of all ethnicities and races, so you don’t have to give up any cultural heritage along with your genetics. An added advantage of this is you can actively choose a donor from a distant country, so you can be safe in the knowledge the chances of you knowing, or bumping into your donor are so small you can put them safely to the back of your mind.
To access our donor profiles, you can register directly on our website in this link, or email us directly at info@ovobankID and one of our coordinators will be in touch to talk you to about your needs and answer all your questions, as many times as you need.
Finally, from all of us at OvobankID we want to say a big “thank you” to all of you who responded, helping us to help you.
