Egg Donor with Questions

[Anonymous]

I'm looking into the process of donating eggs for my sister who has dealt with years of infertility and most recently three failed egg retrievals. She lives on the west coast and I live in the DC area so that complicates this process. Looking for any feedback from anyone who has either gone through this process with a known egg donor (or is one) and/or dealt with a donor in another location. Ideally I want to find a clinic in this area to do the initial testing and monitor me during the treatment and then I could just fly out to my sister for the egg retrieval. She has an appt coming up with her RE to talk more, but I want to find out more on my own about the tricky logistics of this and how I can help get the ball rolling. Any advice or feedback is appreciated!

[Anonymous]

I was an anonymous egg donor in my 20s. At the time I lived in LA and the couple lived in San Francisco. It was no big deal. When it was time for retrieval, I flew to SF and had about 3 days of appts before retrieval and 2 days of recovery before I flew home.

[Anonymous]

It would actually be easier for you to do the egg donation in DC and have her monitored in California and fly to DC for a transfer.
There is less monitoring with transfer and they can sync her schedule with birth control. Plus she would fly out for transfer 4 days after your retrieval for a 5 day transfer which is way easier to plan. You get sedated, she does not, you are bloated and uncomfortable, she is not, etc.

[Anonymous]

Agree with pp that it’s easier to travel for the transfer. I went to LA for my transfer then did the follow up blood tests and sonograms here, so only one trip and only stayed in LA 1 night. If you travel for retrieval you have to stay longer. My donor also traveled and I think she was there at least 5 days if not a week (no complications).

In any event, you can certainly do all the initial testing without travel. Most of the clinics around here will do that and the initial monitoring for you if you do decide to travel for the retrieval. For the testing, I’d expect you can just do it and have your sister pay directly or reimburse you. I used an agency that coordinated all the finances. My donor was known, but only in the sense that I got to talk to her and I know her name, she isn’t a family member.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with pp that it’s easier to travel for the transfer. I went to LA for my transfer then did the follow up blood tests and sonograms here, so only one trip and only stayed in LA 1 night. If you travel for retrieval you have to stay longer. My donor also traveled and I think she was there at least 5 days if not a week (no complications).

In any event, you can certainly do all the initial testing without travel. Most of the clinics around here will do that and the initial monitoring for you if you do decide to travel for the retrieval. For the testing, I’d expect you can just do it and have your sister pay directly or reimburse you. I used an agency that coordinated all the finances. My donor was known, but only in the sense that I got to talk to her and I know her name, she isn’t a family member.

I should add that my husband also had to go to LA once, too. He also stayed 1 night. Still easy, but depending on flights it’s not necessarily less expensive bc his flight was last minute bc you can’t necessarily plan the retrieval day. The transfer can be scheduled further in advance though if the embryos r frozen. It’s easy to freeze embryos, but less recommended to freeze eggs.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the feedback about it being easier for my sister to travel and me to go through the whole shot process and egg retrieval here. That makes sense and I'm not sure why I hadn't really thought about that. I talked to Shady Grove and they have an out-of-area patient situation that this would fall into. Has anyone worked with other fertility clinics that would be helpful with this dual-patient/location issue? Has anyone used Columbia Fertility for fertility treatments with egg donors or specifically egg retrievals? I know Dominion is another one that's been suggested. It sounds like the "Day 3" testing that I'll need to get done - to even confirm that I am qualified to donate eggs - should really be done through a fertility clinic and not my OBGYN office.

[Anonymous]

Not quite the same situation since I did not use an egg donor, but I had a surrogate from out of state fly in for a (successful) transfer of my embryos at Columbia Fertility. She arrived 2 days before transfer, had an ultrasound to check her lining the day before transfer, and left the day after the transfer. Highly recommend Dr. Abbasi, and they can definitely work with someone traveling from out of state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback about it being easier for my sister to travel and me to go through the whole shot process and egg retrieval here. That makes sense and I'm not sure why I hadn't really thought about that. I talked to Shady Grove and they have an out-of-area patient situation that this would fall into. Has anyone worked with other fertility clinics that would be helpful with this dual-patient/location issue? Has anyone used Columbia Fertility for fertility treatments with egg donors or specifically egg retrievals? I know Dominion is another one that's been suggested. It sounds like the "Day 3" testing that I'll need to get done - to even confirm that I am qualified to donate eggs - should really be done through a fertility clinic and not my OBGYN office.

You can do a day 3 testing at your OB as a start of fertility checkup. That would be covered by your insurance and that can rule out things like Diminished Ovarian Reserve.

[Anonymous]

Her fertility clinic will want to do all the prelim work as well as control the protocol. They can coordinate with another clinic here to deal with bloodwork, etc. Then you will fly to her to do the retrieval. If she wants more flexibility, she can fertilize and then freeze.

That will allow you to do the transfer at a time of her convenience, rather than trying to sync your cycles.