What are things to think about before considering Donor Egg?

[Anonymous]

I am 42 and have one child through IUI a couple years ago. My big worry is having a child with age related developmental issues. Does a DE mean that the child is more likely to be healthy? How much does it cost? Would you chance having a child at an advanced age with increased odds of it not being healthy?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

not necessarily. . . a just posted on a private listserve mentioned that she used donor egg and donor sperm and her child has leukemia. I am not sure if that is age-related. She is about to have a second DE/DS child.

[Anonymous]

the odds of down syndrome increase with age so DE would decrease those odds and donors are screened for genetic issues. The cause or causes of leukemia are not known, but it does bring up the fact that there is no guarantee for a healthy baby regardless of the method used to get pregnant.

[Anonymous]

We are getting ready to start some donor egg cycles. Most REs will say that your chances are DEFINITELY better with donor eggs if you are over 35...b/c all the donors are under the age of 32-33--It's not cheap. If you want to try just one cycle it's about $17,000 if you share eggs with another recipient--much more (double?) if you want all the eggs. SGFC has a shared risk option that runs about $34,000 for 6 attempts--I'd encourage you to contact someone there...they have a whole packet they can send you with info in general and their financial info. These donors are rigorously screened (psychologically, mentally, physically, genetically). If that's the route you choose to go, you get privvied to the donors full questionairre (family history, medical history, age, education, former pregnancies, etc) and baby photo of the donor.

[Anonymous]

PP 14:51, what level of detail did you get about the education of the donor (ex, does it just say "graduate school" or does it say "getting PhD in English"?). Also, do you really just get a baby pic, or do you get pics from childhood? I know GIVF gives you childhood pics. All babies kinda look the same to me (and so many ppl's coloring totally changes from childhood) so I was wondering what you could tell from the SG photos... Thanks!!!

[Anonymous]

The education info and photos really vary from donor to donor. On some, it just said "Master's degree"...other's say, "in process of getting B.S. in finance from UMD".--I guess it's really up to the donor as to how much detail they include. Re: the photos, most folks included a baby photo AND a photo from childhood (it has to be under the age of 12)...I would say most were baby and then one around 5 or 6. Shady Grove keeps all of this on a private database...but if you're interested, I think you can call them and they can give you a temporary password--just so you can see the amount of info that's provided.