As you struggle with infertility for years, you go through a roller-coaster of emotions. You endure many failed treatments just to have a baby of your own. When egg donation is the next option, it might be a decision too harsh to take.
Overcome apprehensions and misconceptions. Then you will realise that egg donation is not that nerve-wrecking after all. Here are some steps that can lead you on the road to acceptance.
Table of Contents
Understand the situation
The first thing you need to accept is the true situation you are presently in. Specific aspects of your fertility have resulted in several failed attempts. Your fertility specialist or IVF specialist doctor is suggesting that your body could no longer produce viable eggs. The next option is to seek able egg donors.
You’d be happy to note that most donor egg recipients had low levels of depression or anxiety and scored well on psychiatric evaluations. It means they were happy with their decision and harbour little to no regrets.
Why get egg donation?
There are several reasons why women choose to get donor eggs. Firstly they prefer to have their partner’s genetic link to the baby. Second, they want to experience pregnancy. And third, they do not trust the adoption process.
Physical realities prompt some women to get donor eggs, and they benefit from the opportunity. These women benefit from egg donation because:
- they have no ovaries;
- they have premature ovarian failure;
- they have genetic problems;
- radiotherapy or chemotherapy damaged their ovaries;
- they are going through menopause.
Once you have accepted these facts and have chosen egg donation as the right treatment for you, then you can move on to the next stages of the process.
Known donor or unknown donor?
The next step is to choose the type of donor – either a known donor or an unknown donor. Most women prefer an anonymous donor. It is less involved that way. Women who choose known donors usually choose a sister or a close friend. It is chiefly the issue of trust.
Know the facts, bust the myths
Once you are in the process, you occasionally wonder, “What am I doing?” The emotive side of egg donation is something often overlooked. Some women find it hard to go through. But most of these feelings result from false perceptions. And once you know the facts and bust the myths, you will gain more confidence with the procedure.
Myth 1: The donor egg carries the donor’s own characteristics.
The fact is, the child can look like the partner or the donor in equal chances. The child can be a mixture of both. Moreover, environmental influences such as diet, habits, upbringing, education can mold the child to look like the parents over time.
The donor egg carries genes from the donor’s whole gene pool. This would include parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives throughout the generations. The partner’s sperm fertilizes the egg. The sperm also carries genes from the partner’s whole gene pool as well.
You might ask if with donor eggs “Will the baby feel like mine?” There is a 50-50 chance that the donor eggs will carry the donor’s own characteristics and your partner’s characteristics as well.
But the donor’s “influence” only happens at conception. Biology is not destiny. After that, the ball will be in your court for many years to come as you nurture and love your baby up to adulthood.
Myth 2: The donor egg is promptly placed in your uterus.
That is not the case. The term “egg donation” might be perplexing. But you do not receive someone else’s egg in your uterus at all.
The donor’s egg and your partner’s sperm are fertilized in a petri dish. The combined material duplicates itself and creates two fresh cells. It duplicates again and creates four cells, then 8 cells, up to more than 300 cells in 5 to 9 days to form the early embryo or blastocyst. It’s the embryo that doctors transfer to the uterus.
Myth 3: The pregnant recipient is just an incubator, nothing more.
Completely false! As the embryo grows in your womb, the pregnant mother’s body develops every cell in the baby’s body.
The fetus will absorb your blood and your protein, sugars, vitamins, minerals, and fluids to build muscles, bones, nerve cells and organs. You may not be a genetic donor but you are the child’s biological mother.
Love is the true purpose
Remember why you got into this journey in the first place. This journey comes out of love. You chose to bring this baby into this world. You endured months and years of IVF treatments. Nothing but your dream of having this baby kept you going. The donor’s egg is a gift. Now you can go on living your dream of being a parent.
If you feel you still need more information about egg donation contact experts at Dunya IVF in Cyprus. Contact them here.
