Infertility is quite common. Advances in infertility treatments have made achieving parenthood more attainable for everyone. For many individuals and couples, donated eggs are the key to successful pregnancies.

Women who have donated their eggs to help a deserving individual or couple get pregnant recently shared their experiences as part of an ongoing research project to help others who are considering the process.

Experts from the Centre for Reproduction Research (CRR) at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) have partnered with four leading UK fertility support organizations to interview two women who have acted as a ‘egg donor’.

Professor Nicky Hudson, Director of the CRR, stated, “Our research into egg donation highlighted a gap in information for women in the UK who are thinking about donating their eggs. There is also a desire from them to hear the stories of other women who have donated. To be able to address this gap and create this new resource, developed with leading UK charities and support organizations, is a really important outcome of our research.”

It is imperative that each woman that wants to become an egg donor at PureOvum isn’t unwise to the process and how it affects your life now and — for future fertility. Here at PureOvum, we thoroughly educate donors on each step of the egg donation process and prepare you on what to expect. But more importantly, we want egg donors to hear from other women on what the process is like and what to expect.

Egg Donor Eleanor Clapp

“I found that meeting the recipient family and chatting to them beforehand made the whole process more tangible,” she explained. “I could imagine any child born from the donation having a happy life with the people I’d met and it made the whole process so much more fulfilling and rewarding as it made the process more ‘real’. It is really important to go into the process with your eyes open and having talked together about all the possible feelings you’ll have and scenarios that might occur. A donor baby will be as genetically close to you as your own child but it won’t be part of your own family, which is rather weird when you think about it. Everyone has different reasons for wanting to donate, and sometimes you just get a feeling that it’s the right thing to do. It is important for all concerned to know what sort of relationship you do or don’t want or expect to have if a baby is born. Recipient and donor families all need to be comfortable with whatever is agreed.”

Egg Donor Cathy Sidaway

“A lot of information provided at fertility clinic level is skewed specifically to encourage women to come forward and donate eggs with the resulting child having no access to the identity of their donor, until they reach 18. I’m keen that more women exploring egg donation know that this is a route they can choose to go down and the reasons why it’s such an important consideration, both for them, the couple they’re wanting to help and the resulting child. Hearing first-hand the experiences of women who’ve opted to go down the known donation route, helps others understand the pros and cons, the options and the pit falls, so that fully informed decisions can be made.”

Would you like to speak to a PureCoordinator about becoming an egg donor? Connect with us today.