So how are you feeling about your eggs? Most women don’t even think about this, especially if we’ve already had children.
Move into the world of donation, though, and you quickly notice that it can be dominated by numbers. How many follicles were there? How many eggs were collected? How many embryos developed, and how many were fertilised? Did your couple get pregnant? How many embryos are left for them to have another try?
When you’re going through something as emotional as egg donation, especially for the first time, it’s easy to look at those numbers and check with other donors to see if you’re ‘normal’, and maybe feel a bit ‘less than’ if you don’t seem to measure up.
But it’s not as simple as that. Women are individuals. We come in different shapes and sizes, are a bit older or a bit younger, are genetically that bit different, respond slightly differently to the treatment. All these factors can make a small difference to how many eggs are collected and their quality.
The doctors do everything they can to make the treatment as effective as possible, including choosing healthy, fertile donors like you, but in the 32 years since the first child was born from a donor egg, we haven’t reached the point where there’s a guaranteed outcome. Nature always has a say in whether the perfect embryo implants or not.
Every donation is important and valued. So if you’re starting to get caught up in worrying about the numbers, remember that out of around 9 million UK women who could donate, you’re one of less than 2000 each year who actually does it. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that this is about you and your couple, not about everyone else. Your couple would never even have had a chance to get pregnant if it wasn’t for you. You made that decision to be a donor, took the step of getting in touch, and had the courage to go forward with treatment.
Your kindness and generosity as a donor is precious, regardless of how things turn out during the donation cycle, or whether the couple get pregnant.
You’re doing something to be really proud of.
Can you donate eggs, when you smoke?
Charlotte, thank you so much for your question and your interest in egg donation.
You really do need to have stopped smoking in order to donate… smoking seriously detrimentally affects your eggs, to the extent that a donated egg is much less likely to succeed in treatment, so therefore clinics and recipient couples tend not to consider a smoker to be a suitable donor.
So if you could give up in order to donate that would be fantastic, this could be a huge incentive to you, and if you could help a couple by doing it - then it could be a win:win!
You might also like to see our page on this at:
http://www.altrui.co.uk/egg-donation/egg-donation-and-smoking/
hi im a single mother n i would struggle to get to london i currently live in hull is they anywere close to be able to do this?
I’m wondering the same as I live in Somerset.
Hi Leonie and Reenie
Many thanks for contacting us - We’d love to chat about this with you and see how we can possibly make access to clinics any easier for you.
Could you possibly call us on 01969 667875 when you get a moment please? - we can immediately answer any questions you have and then perhaps take some details to be able to send you our information and start the ball rolling. If you prefer, you can email me at [email protected]
We’d absolutely love your help if you can possibly give it, it’s extremely kind of you to consider egg donation, so I look forward to hearing from you soon!