Donor EGG SCREENING

[Anonymous]

Hi ladies,
Do you have any advice regarding which fertility clinics in northern Virginia have the best egg donor programs (including stringent medical, genetic and psychological screening process)? Thanks so much!

Stay safe!

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I think that all reputable clinics will have a stringent medical, genetic, and psychological screening process and they will be able to describe that process to you. In my search for a clinic for donor egg services, all of them in NOVA followed the standards set by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. I ended up choosing frozen eggs through Fairfax Egg Bank and received a bunch of genetic and medical information on the donor.

When you are having intro consultations with clinics, be sure to ask about their process. Also, check out the ASRM's website https://www.asrm.org/topics/topics-index/egg-donation/ and PVED https://pved.org/howtoselectafertility.php for recommendations.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello,

I think that all reputable clinics will have a stringent medical, genetic, and psychological screening process and they will be able to describe that process to you. In my search for a clinic for donor egg services, all of them in NOVA followed the standards set by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. I ended up choosing frozen eggs through Fairfax Egg Bank and received a bunch of genetic and medical information on the donor.

When you are having intro consultations with clinics, be sure to ask about their process. Also, check out the ASRM's website https://www.asrm.org/topics/topics-index/egg-donation/ and PVED https://pved.org/howtoselectafertility.php for recommendations.

Good luck!

Thanks for this information. It’s very helpful. I’m new to this process and it can be overwhelming. And I’m hoping that I can find a donor and that the process is successful. Quick question, how many rounds did it take for you to have your baby? And thanks again!

[Anonymous]

When I considered donation at SGF about 5 years ago, they did a health questionnaire for their donors and a screening with a psychologist. I do not think they did any physical exam themselves other than what is needed for egg retrieval. I think if you call the clinics, they would share their process with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello,

I think that all reputable clinics will have a stringent medical, genetic, and psychological screening process and they will be able to describe that process to you. In my search for a clinic for donor egg services, all of them in NOVA followed the standards set by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. I ended up choosing frozen eggs through Fairfax Egg Bank and received a bunch of genetic and medical information on the donor.

When you are having intro consultations with clinics, be sure to ask about their process. Also, check out the ASRM's website https://www.asrm.org/topics/topics-index/egg-donation/ and PVED https://pved.org/howtoselectafertility.php for recommendations.

Good luck!

Thanks for this information. It’s very helpful. I’m new to this process and it can be overwhelming. And I’m hoping that I can find a donor and that the process is successful. Quick question, how many rounds did it take for you to have your baby? And thanks again!

I have not had a baby yet We are in the process of getting ready for a transfer.

[Anonymous]

It took me one round with egg donation. That was after 3 years of useless IVF. I’m sure every donor, recipient, and situation is different though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I considered donation at SGF about 5 years ago, they did a health questionnaire for their donors and a screening with a psychologist. I do not think they did any physical exam themselves other than what is needed for egg retrieval. I think if you call the clinics, they would share their process with you.

Thank you so much ladies. I know that I have a big capacity to love, but at the same time I’m so scared that this baby will hate me for not being the
biological parent. The dichotomy between being so excited about having the family you wanted and being so scared!

[Anonymous]

I was of the same thinking but right now I am 24 weeks pregnant with my darling baby and couldn't love him much more. My Dh and I have a biological child and we want a family more. We went through fresh donor egg and left Shady Grove as it was a horrible place for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was of the same thinking but right now I am 24 weeks pregnant with my darling baby and couldn't love him much more. My Dh and I have a biological child and we want a family more. We went through fresh donor egg and left Shady Grove as it was a horrible place for us.

Thank you for sharing these thoughts and a big congratulations! How awesome. If you don’t mind me asking, were you doing donor egg at shady grove? And were did you ultimately go? Thanks so much! And again, congratulations!

[Anonymous]

Yes we were doing donor egg and we went to CCRM Colorado, we would get maybe one good pgs tested embryo at Shady groove at CCRM we had 6 embryos and we went through an external agency but their own internal process for screening the donor is very strict even though the agency has performed all the research. Sometimes agencies or the donors are not 100% honest and we went through many screening but CCRM did the best job and rejected many before they confirmed the perfect donor for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes we were doing donor egg and we went to CCRM Colorado, we would get maybe one good pgs tested embryo at Shady groove at CCRM we had 6 embryos and we went through an external agency but their own internal process for screening the donor is very strict even though the agency has performed all the research. Sometimes agencies or the donors are not 100% honest and we went through many screening but CCRM did the best job and rejected many before they confirmed the perfect donor for us.

Thank you for your response, it is very helpful. I have read that CCRM has a very stringent screening process, which is exactly what I’m looking for. I’m not sure why, but it seems like SG is a bit more lenient with their process. Congratulations! Wishing you the best of luck!

[Anonymous]

The most stringent screening will be done by the the highest-quality donor egg agencies. The fertility clinic will do an independent screening as well. Our experience was that SGFC was highly focused on the medical screen. They did not do any form of genetic testing and any psychological screening was superficial at best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The most stringent screening will be done by the the highest-quality donor egg agencies. The fertility clinic will do an independent screening as well. Our experience was that SGFC was highly focused on the medical screen. They did not do any form of genetic testing and any psychological screening was superficial at best.

We used SGFC and they most certainly did genetic screening of both donor and my husband. Age was my biggest barrier with OE IVF. The fresh embryo transfer took, as did an FET a couple years later with another embryo from that batch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I considered donation at SGF about 5 years ago, they did a health questionnaire for their donors and a screening with a psychologist. I do not think they did any physical exam themselves other than what is needed for egg retrieval. I think if you call the clinics, they would share their process with you.

Thank you so much ladies. I know that I have a big capacity to love, but at the same time I’m so scared that this baby will hate me for not being the
biological parent. The dichotomy between being so excited about having the family you wanted and being so scared!

Understandable "cold feet" feeling. We love our DE kids! I remember at an early meeting with our RE, my husband and I laughed about how much we loved the kitten we had recently brought home, and that if a family member of another species could instill that much love and warmth, we'd be just fine with a human addition to our family, genetically related or not!