Deciding to Donate

Sue followed up my last post with a question about when and how I decided to become a donor (Sue is, as Tertia would say, G&D because she is the only person I know who links to my blog :) ).

The idea was planted when I was an undergraduate, probably about 7 or 8 years ago. I went to a very prestigious college and there would occasionally be adds in the student paper looking for egg donors. They specified everything - height, weight, hair color, eye color, SAT scores, religion, etc - and offered lots of money (sometimes up to $20,000). I thought about it at the time, but I was very uninformed. I somehow was under the impression that the process required taking vaginal temperatures, monitoring mucus levels, followed by some sort of surgery that required like a week in the hospital. I have no idea how that got in my head, but someone put it there - I wouldn't come up with such craziness on my own. That really seemed inconvenient and unpleasant to me, so I didn't have a very strong interest.

After finishing college, I moved out here to the East Coast for graduate school. One night the thought kind of popped into my head again, and I was curious to get on WebMD and check out what was involved in the process. The internet existed when I was in college, but it was a lot smaller and the great information sources that are around now weren't then. So I got online and did some searching. I found out my impression was way off, so I moved on to looking at websites of clinics in the area that took egg donors. I found my clinic online (Washington Fertility Center) and they had a lot of information, plus an online pre-screening form. I filled that out (along with forms from other clinics). WFC emailed me the next day, and the donation coordinator was so nice. They sent me the big background packet, and within a couple weeks I went in for a visit.

I met the donation coordinator in person then. She is one of the sweetest and nicest people in the whole world. She really sat me down and explained all of the steps of the process. It rid me of any of my mis-impressions right then.

I had pretty much decided to go ahead with donating, but it was reaffirmed as I went through the tests. My first sonogram showed a couple cysts on my left ovary. The doctors were great. They gave me a new b/c Rx, and kept me coming back for 3 or 4 months until all the cysts had resolved. At that point, I hadn't even donated, but they were all so kind and supportive. It made me feel very welcome and taken care of and safe.

Frankly, when a half-dozen strangers are probing around my girl parts with a 12" wand, they had *better* make me feel comfortable.