DONOR EGG Tmt Thread... " Egg-heads"

[luci]

Hi ladies,
I am glad to find here some company, we are also getting ready for #2, but we will not go back to gennet this time, I am not reading and hearing good things about them lately and we had no cryos left anyway. we are going to visit in february a clinic in greece, they promised no waiting at all and their service sounds fair. i have a friend who goes for embryotransfer in a week, she is single and is getting 2 frozies for 2200 euros, she had contacted them only 6 weeks ago. I will keep you posted, evergreen u r right, we ARE getting OLD.... if all goes well, i will be 44 when my second gets born.... my husband keeps asking me if we really want to go through this.... I am so scared.... could not take another failure.

[evergreen, co]

Luci,

What things have you been hearing about Gennet? We were very impressed with them last year, but of course we have our son to show for it and that helps. I do not want to go through the trial, heartache, experiments as we did to get DS. It took 3 times last time to get it right. We figure that maybe we know the recipe now. We are set for May 13 ER with May 16-18 ET. I also considered Greece; what clinic are you thinking about? Do they have lighter featured donors? Blue eyes, blond hair, light skin...etc? That is my worry that they are darker featured then we are.

S

[luci]

Hi evergreen,
my husband is german, so we got to read a bit in german forums, there was this woman who was not sure what the blood group of her donor was (they switched donors and never told her), another couple wrote us in a pn that they suspect gennet does egg sharing...i wonder also how they can have all embryotransfers set on the same day... whatsoever, I am not up to making them look bad, after all my little baby is from prague! ... it simply does not feel right there for us any longer. most probably you met anastasia - she has left gennet awhile ago and works now in greece, we actually found this greek clinic thanks to her. she works with embryolab in thessaloniki. we are visiting them in february. I got cheap flights with BA, hotel rates are fair and they take us on a weekend. i am myself light featured, anastasia told us that they have enough blond donors. in case you wanna contact her, this is her email anastasia@crossbees.com or embryolab@crossbees.com. i could not take any more heartache neither and we cannot afford any experiments... i am just not ready to compromise with less if i can have again all this attention that helped us in our first attempt... my husband keeps telling me that we can be happy also with our little sunshine and i had to promise him that this is our last one... so at least i want to be sure that it felt "right". best luck to you, luci

[wishfull27]

just checking in to see how your cycle is going chris - how is ED doing - any dates for transfer yet ?

All crossed for you xxxx

[to_have_fun08]

Hi Wishfull -- time is going by way too slow. Donor and I just started lupron today. ER won't be till the last week in Feb. I know it will be here quickly but not quick enough. At this point i am in total denial that this could end up in a BFN so if it doesn't work, i think im going to need a room at the funny farm.

How are you doing? how are the babies?

[chriss]

To have fun,
Keeping my fingers crossed for you. Think positively. You are a warrior. XO

[Brooklyngirl]

Hello ladies,

Some of you may remember be from last year, when I started thinking about egg donation. Well, I had a rather disastrous cycle (the microdose lupron did me in and I had not even one follicle). I am 43 and really would like this work. The doctor told me that my numbers are good (FSH 3.27, AMH 1.1) for my age, so it would just be luck if we did it again. But even with that, he gives me only a 5% chance of success.

Donor eggs, as you all know, gives me a much higher chance.

So I am at a crossroad. I could try one more time with my own eggs or I could proceed to donor eggs now. Of course the money is an issue and the loss of a genetic connection is an issue. I do feel a terrible loss about that, so I am tempted to roll the dice.

So ladies, here is my question to all of you: How many cycles did you do before? If you had unlimited funds (haha), what would you do? What made you finally decide to go the DE route? And, any recommendations about clinics or agencies or both (I am not sure if my clinic will allow me to use an agency)?

Many thanks!

[chriss]

6 cycles (miscarriage, chemicals, etc.)

Knew in my heart it was time

Happier than ever now!!!

Went to Cornell after 4th failure. Cornell was the best.

Good Luck

[sabi]

brooklyn,
instead of two to make baby it takes three. i cried & cried... very low egg reserve & i wanted children b4 50, haha!!
we bit the bullet & went de route. got the end result. bfp 1st round beautiful young girl gave me i think 18 eggs.
have many in the freezer. no worries about downs or miscarriages. smooth as silk. what do you want, is what you have to ask
yourself & how much disappointment can you take. i went with the end result & never looked back. i plan on telling the boys about our wonderful fertility fairy. believe me, i'm 45 & most everyone thinks i had some "help". no secret that our eggs have a lifespan too. i am so grateful de was even an option. feel free to contact me if you would like.
hello to all my old cyber friends. the boys turn one on tuesday. these choices & heartaches seem a lifetime away.
hugs & kisses to carolyn & chriss. been very busy this past year as you know. we are finally getting settled in & just going to the hospital for checkups & PT.
sabi

[to_have_fun08]

brooklyn - i have been on this roller coaster ride since April 2008. 4 canceled IVF's and 6 failed cycles. I was ready to move on do DE after my 3rd failed cycle, that was also after the 4 canceled cycles. I had seen so much success with donor I new that if i wanted a child we had to go that route. Hubby wasn't for it. He has always stated he wanted a child of mine. So we tried 3 more cycles, all BFN. We are out of insurance and now all out of pocket and was at the end of the road. Either DE or live without children. So hubby finally agreed. took out a huge amount from my 401K for financing. Hubby still has a dream vision that after we have a DE child that we can get pregnant on our own an be my child. I am not keeping my hopes up on that one. The only way I have been able to afford this is with having 4 insurance policies and some really freaky stuff that went on with the billing that should not have happened but worked out in our favor so we didn't have to pay the full amount. Since you do have good #'s and you have the $$ go for trying on your own again with a different protocol. If you can only afford one more cycle, i would wager on a DE cycle. The thing you really have to remember, is that as we age the percentage of good eggs decline. you could produce 20 eggs at this point and only 3 or 4 out of those 20 are going to be genetically good.

Good luck!!!

[kellym]

Hello My DE Friends!
I haven't been on here in forever but thought I'd pop in to say hi!! I can't believe that the 2010 babies are already 1 - but of course they are! Times sure flies. I just remember how exciting and alive this board was a year ago - lots of BFPs around!
My guys are 2.5 now and are so much fun!!
Brooklyn, we did 9 failed cycles (two chemicals in there) plus 2 cancelled cycles. I was ready to just have my baby(ies). It wasn't a huge struggle for me to go the DE route, I think I was ready to go around the 6th cycle but my DH wasn't quite there yet. Best decision we ever made because our two little ones are as much ours as a genetic baby would be - carrying these for 9 months makes it so, I think. Its amazing how many people say that my son is a mini-version of my husband and that my daughter is a mini-version of me. We've only told a few people about the DE. In hindsight I wish we had chosen to go DE sooner - we were successful on our 1st try and would have saved ourselves a lot of heartache!
Good luck with your decision.
Big hugs to everyone out there who has already gone the DE route or is thinking about it! What wonderful gifts we've been given with these generous DEs!!

[Brooklyngirl]

Thanks for all of these replies. I am leaning toward donor eggs, but the process seems daunting right now. I am just beginning and there so many options that I don't really know how to start.

So, for all of you veterans, how do you pick a clinic? Should I use an agency or the current RE's in-house coordinator? How do I decide what to look for in a donor? How do I pay for it? Are there loans, grants, credit cards? Do I tell a potential child about this or not? And, most importantly, how do I get over all of these conflicting feelings -- a sense of failure because I couldn't do this on my own, a sense of anxiety and sadness that I won't have a genetic connection with a child, a deep fear that this too won't work! Ugh. I may psych myself out it! But I won't. And I do know that if it does work, I will be very happy.

Many thanks for all of the advice and kind words!

[wishfull27]

Brooklyn - like the others said it was not a difficult decision for us to go to ED - 2 failed cycles with dismall response to maximum stims and the overwhelming desire to be a mummy - In the Uk things work slightly differently and there is a huge waiting list for ED becasue it is no longer annonymous - we went to Prague - clinic recommended by a couple we met on holiday in the Maldives who had successful cycle there - I was actually looking at the same clinic but that sealed it for me. I don't even think about the genetics - they are my boys and I love them unconditionally - so many people comment how much they look like me - and I just smile say yes and chuckle to myself.

Not sure what else I can say to help - always here to listen though ... good luck
xxxxxx

[wishfull27]

Kelly - how bizarre I was only thinking about you the other day - how are those gorgeous children of yours .. into everything? - scary where the time goes!!

The boys were one last week - Samuel is walking but Benjamin has shown no interest - quicker to crawl !!

Would love to see some pictures - are you on Facebook ??

hugs across the ocean xxxx

[to_have_fun08]

Wishful - Wow I can't believe your little guys are already 1.


Brooklyn - One thing that someone told me about donor eggs which really helped me a lot was that we are only borrowing 1 cell from someone else. just 1 cell, sounds so insignificant. If this cycle works I will be telling everyone that we used donor eggs but instead of saying eggs, im going to say cells, and see what the reaction is. As far as picking a donor, make a list of the traits you would want. maybe hair color or eye color, education. Some clinics have their own donor banks, for me i went through a donor agency i found online. As far as paying, I took money from my 401k. I know others have re-morgaged their house and I believe that are some loans out there you might be able to get. Donor eggs are expensive. I think I am paying around $30,000 for just this cycle. My last hoo rahh.

AFM - This is the week, donor goes in for u/s today and ER should be sometime in the next few days. kind of excited to hear the reports but then kind of not because I always get bad news when it comes to this stuff. Can i just bury my head in the sand and ignore everything?