DE Agency

[Anonymous]

Hi -

I am in the midst of my DE journey and was wondering if anyone had any experiences they could share working with a donor egg agency (as opposed to a clinic like SG or GIVF with their own pool of donors). It seems expensive and more time-consuming to me, but perhaps there is a wider selection of donors? If you have worked with an agency, how long did it take from the time you selected her to the time of egg transfer?

Also, has anyone been particularly impressed with a clinic's donor pool? (I know they change from day-to-day/month-to-month.)

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

We started off with an agency, but then decided on a donor available at our clinic.

[Anonymous]

I know GW will work with agencies such as Genesis, but all the procedures are done in DC. It is a bit more costly and there are legal agreements with the agency but it's well worth it when it comes to deciding on your family.

[Anonymous]

We used an agency because the particular clinic I wanted to work with didn't have an in-house donor program. We selected our donor in May and cycled the following October but that was mainly because the donor didn't want to cycle over summer. Had she been available, we probably could have been ready to cycle in July or August.

Using an agency does give you access to a much larger pool of potential donors. Agencies also tend to provide more donor information (including adult pictures) than clinics do.

[Anonymous]

Donor agencies have much greater selection of donors. In our case, we were looking for a particular racial/ethnic background which none of the clinics had in their in-house pool. We also found that by going through the agency, we were able to get more information about the donor's background, education, etc., which made us feel much more comfortable. I also wanted the option of being able to contact our donor, should our child decide he/she wants to. I don't think you can do that with clinic donors. It is more expensive, but for our case it was totally worth it.

We selected our donor in June and cycled in October. It normally is faster than that but in my case my body was slow to respond to the meds so it took longer to synchronize our cycles.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thank you very much for the incredibly helpful replies. May I ask what agencies you worked with?

[Anonymous]

We ended up going with a clinic in NYC (Columbia-CWR) and we found that they had a great in-house pool of donors and if they didn't have the ethnic background you were looking for, they would advertise and try to find it (which isn't that hard in a place like NYC). They are a little more expensive than some local clinics and there were some travel expenses (we had family to stay with to avoid hotel costs), but it was cheaper than a local clinic plus the cost of the agency fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We ended up going with a clinic in NYC (Columbia-CWR) and we found that they had a great in-house pool of donors and if they didn't have the ethnic background you were looking for, they would advertise and try to find it (which isn't that hard in a place like NYC). They are a little more expensive than some local clinics and there were some travel expenses (we had family to stay with to avoid hotel costs), but it was cheaper than a local clinic plus the cost of the agency fees.

That should read Columbia-CWRC.

[Anonymous]

We used Loving Donations - 3 time and at two clinics - and the experience has been nothing but positive.

[Anonymous]

Our local clinic advertised and found a donor that matched our ethnic background, i am currently pregnant with our 3rd child from that one donor. DE is expensive, but I feel like we got more than our money's worth! I strongly advise couples to avoid clinics that do egg sharing, it's abusive to the donors and can cost you more in the long run.

[Anonymous]

We started by generating a list of as many different reputable donor agencies as we could find. We then requested passwords for each agency's donor database. When we found a donor we really liked, we went with the agency that represented her. Had we found our perfect donor at one of then other agencies on our list, I would have felt equally comfortable using them instead. The agency we ultimately went with was Tiny Treasures.

FYI, I found the agency reviews on this site to be incredibly helpful:

http://www.greateggs.com/egg-donor-agency-reviews.html

[Anonymous]

We went with Genesis Group based in California. My case manager was Nikki, and she was so responsive and super helfpul.

[Anonymous]

Pink and Blue Surrogacy. Caring, honest, and professional.

[Anonymous]

OP, do NOT use Loving Donation. I thought they were difficult to work with and not upfront with all the fees (which they said would be refunded if not used....hah!). I ended up with Beverly Hill Egg Donation. Also, do not be fooled if a clinic is not located locally. They usually have donors across the country, and if you find a donor you really like, then you should just pay the cost for them to travel.