Donor List

So, we decided that I was going to try to be an egg donor. It is a system of matching based upon the recipients who have the most seniority. The way the actual process works is that if I develop 6 or more follicles, the recipients would get the 1st egg, I would get the 2nd, they the third and so on. So if it turns out to be an uneven number, they would get the extra. If I have less that 6 follies, the recipients would get all of them and I woubd be entitled to another round of meds and retrieval. There is also the option of donating eggs for money, and I think people received between 7 and 10k for that.

We now had to wait a few weeks for the next "donor list" to go out. Every 5 weeks a list goes out with all of the potential donors' information. There are usually about 120 recipients waiting to match with a donor and between 5 and 20 donors. The list assigns each donor a number and gives information about me (height, weight, nationality, interests, etc.). If a recipient is interested they can contact the office and have access to my picture and more detailed info about me. While going through all of the forms, applications and pre-testing, I also had to complete an excessivelty thorough psychosocial evaluation which asked questions about almost every aspect of my being. I spent an entire day working on this with my Mom and stressing over each and every question. I felt that because these people could end up with a child that has 50% of my genes, they deserved nothing but unfettered honesty. I took this very, very seriously.

Once a couple has evaluated all of the info they can select 3 donors in order of preference. Then those people who have been waiting the longest get first choice. The office staff goes through a process of matching the recipients and donors and then the process of IVF can begin. This whole process takes about 3 weeks so we continued our waiting game.