The initial phases of finding an egg donor are the same as finding a sperm donor. However, the egg donor’s service is more involved, given that she takes medicine to hypersecrete eggs and then often has to travel to the IVF doctor of your choice for retrieval, compared to the one-time visit the sperm donor makes to deliver fresh sperm to the cryobank.
Consequently, the egg donor’s fee is higher and most of the time intended parents will meet with her to be sure it’s a good fit.
The telephone and face to face interviews are very important parts of your final selection process. Never forget she is interviewing you too! This is a very personal meeting. Please be sure to treat it as such!
1) Google search egg donor
2) Complete applications to utilize the database
3) Create a list of criteria for ideal candidate
4) Put the criteria in writing
5) Have your partner do the same
6) Create a profile of the perfect egg donor
7) Search for ideal egg donor on database
8) Select a few options
9) Schedule telephone interviews
10) Create a list of questions for the egg donor
11) Determine what you want to share about yourself
12) Conduct interviews with a partner
13) Debrief with you partner after each interview
14) Schedule face to face meeting with one or two candidates
15) Develop list of comments and questions for meeting
16) Select Venue
17) Conduct Face to face interviews
18) Debrief after interviews
19) Determine if you have met the right egg donor
20) If yes, claim her
21) Find out if she is willing to work with you
22) Celebrate or repeat steps 7 – 21!
Hopefully, there will be a match and you will not have to repeat steps 7 – 21, however, stranger things have happened and you should be prepared to repeat these steps if necessary. This ride down the surrogacy river is not always smooth, but it frequently makes people’s dreams come true. So it’s worth the bumps!
Tell us below what the surprises along the way were for you. Tell us what the salient points were.
Leap Into Action!
Lisa J Lafave, PhD, MBA, ACC
The Surrogacy Coach from Surrogacy Rocks
CEO & Founder of Coaching Rocks, LLC
A Single Mom By Choice Raising Surrogacy Twins
Written in My Little Brick in University Heights, Ohio