Kathleen from Fertility Bits recently wrote about how there now is a shortage of egg donors and sperm donors in the UK, because they changed the laws back in 2005. Now, every child that has been brought into this world with the assistance of an egg or sperm donor has the right to get to know the identity of the donor when the child turns 18.
Of course - many men and women don’t like the idea of a grown person one day standing in front of their door demanding to know “Why did you donate me?!” (This is a rather theatrical scenario, but it’s what people are afraid of).
This article just shows that it’s not black or white, it’s not easy to make the “right decision”. Because while she surely points out that there are lots of problems attached with this change of law, she does not mention the medical reasons that caused the demand for identifying the donors and keeping records of their names.
Some folks recently asked students at UC Berkley about an advertisement that offered $100,000 for an egg donor.
I’ll post the video here. It’s obvious that these people are very opposed to egg donation, and the way the interview the students and present the information is pretty tainted by their opinions.
But I do think that every woman who thinks about donating her eggs should also get information from sources like these to get a view of the full spektrum. This is the only way to get a balanced view of things, also taking the “out-of-balance” voices into consideration.
You can read more about their views at http://handsoffourovaries.com Unfortunately they do not focus so much on making the information and facts that lead them to their believe easily accessible, but more on pushing their “manifesto”, etc.
For example in this video, they talk about a woman who donated her eggs three times and died of cancer later in life. They also mention a woman who suffered from a stroke after taking the medication that goes with egg donation. While these instances are surely sad, they should keep in mind that thousands donate their eggs every year, and it would be rather unusual if a certain percentage of them would not die from various diseases (just like any other slice of the population).
I’d hope to see more statistically significant data from them in the future, but surely respect them for taking action on their beliefs.
NCCRM (North Carolina Center for Reproductive Medicine) has a small database of currently available egg donors that you can browse. It’s interesting that many of them are Native Americans too.
Worcester News recently featured an article on egg donation. The 42 year old woman who turned out to give birth to two healthy twins, thanks to the help of an egg donor, said this:
“Children were everything we had ever wanted. You think, ‘I will have a career, I will get married, I will have children’ – that’s what most women want.”
The article also explains that most people underestimate how many couples struggle with fertility issues: 1 couple out of 6.
It’s also interesting that in the UK they seem to have a little different profile of an ideal egg donor than in the US: They are looking for donors of any ethnicity, aged 23-35 and with or without children.
That’s a bit older than what is most sought-after in the US, and highest in demand are definitely Asian egg donors.
