Board certified in OB/Gyn and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Dr. Rachel A. McConnell is a graduate of Louisiana State University Medical School in Shreveport. She now treats couples with infertility issues at Nevada Fertility C.A.R.E.S. in Las Vegas. In this piece, she explains why so many couples choose to use an egg donor.
Egg donation is an option that a lot of couples are using, and the benefits of such a fertility treatment are two-fold.
For one thing, if a woman already knows that she is having some sort of genetic abnormality issues, or that she has a genetic abnormality that she may not want to pass on to her children, then egg donation would be beneficial to her in that regard.
Egg donation allows the woman to experience the joys of pregnancy, but using an egg from a separate donor rather than her own.
Another issue related to the genetic abnormality reason that a woman might choose to go with an egg donor over another option such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), is if she has concerns that her egg quality may be compromised. If a physician has informed a woman that her egg quality is an issue, then egg donation is the next natural step.
You may ask the question, well if someone is using an egg donor anyway, then why not just choose adoption instead? And I must say, adoption is a great option for a lot of people. But at the same time, some people may just have a yearning to experience pregnancy, and egg donation gives them the chance to do that. Some people want the experience of the whole idea of being pregnant, along with being able to bond with their child while they are still in utero. The bonding that can happen between a woman and her child while the baby is in utero can be incredible, and being able to breastfeed is another aspect of that. So like I said, egg donation can give people the chance the experience all of that, even if their own eggs are not going to be able to be used in the process.
Using an egg donor for the pregnancy, rather than going with adoption, also gives women the ability to have a genetic link to their spouse, which can be important to people.
One thing that couples do have to consider, though, is that using an egg donor is more expensive than going with an option such as IVF. The reason for that is because a second party is involved when it comes to egg donation, and so that drives up the cost in many regards.
For one thing, the egg donor is typically compensated for her time and expenses. I am reluctant to use the word paid to describe that, because you just can’t pay for something like that. Egg donation is a bigger thing than something that can be paid for. When a person chooses to donate her egg, then what the receiving couple is really doing is supplementing or compensating that donor for taking the time out of her life to come into a clinic, do the shots, go through the ultrasounds and extensive testing that needs to be done, and to go through the procedure to remove the eggs. So the payment that a couple makes to the donor is just a goodwill gesture from the patient to the donor to say thank you for all that you have done.
Another reason that egg donation is going to be more expensive than something like in vitro fertilization is because there has to be more monitoring on the part of the physician. There is coordination that is necessary, because now on top of what the couple is doing you have to think about what the egg donor is doing, too. Rather than dealing with the health of one woman, you are dealing with the health of two people. So you have got to make sure that both people are on top of everything that is going on.
Overall, though, I would say that egg donation is an excellent option for couples who have issues that for one reason or another make it difficult to conceive through natural fertility methods alone.
The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.
