There is apparently much confusion about how egg donors are selected, and what they go through once they are selected.

The egg donor screening process

You do not have to have a perfect family medical history with no illnesses at all in order to be accepted (that itself would arouse suspicion). You do have to be in excellent physical and mental health (free of genetic disease, not a smoker or drug user), and a normal body mass index (we use 27 as the BMI cut off). Egg donor agency directors review hundreds of applications and know how to sift out the promising applications from the not-so-promising. Much depends on individual judgment and the needs of the particular egg donation agency or clinic. A woman may be perfectly healthy and fertile but we may pass her by because we do not think we have a good match for her.

But the questionnaire is just the first step. We conduct interviews, take pictures, collect photo IDs and transcripts, run criminal background checks, do Google searches, etc. Once a candidate is selected by a recipient, the medical screening begins. She has blood drawn to test for medical and infectious diseases, has a drug screen, takes a written psychological exam, talks with a psychologist, and has a genetic consult. Any drug use, mental instability, infectious or genetic disease (even if she is only a carrier) would be revealed here. Maybe 2% of the general egg donor applicant pool make it to this stage.

The egg donation process

There are about 100,000 IVF cycles in the US every year (with women attempting to get pregnant using their own eggs) and about 10,000 egg donor cycles; with the exception of the embryo transfer at the very end, the process is exactly the same. So the procedure itself is no longer controversial and relatively routine, but not without any risk at all. Donors are well informed of the risks ahead of time, and most have no complications. Egg donation does not deplete a woman’s ovarian reserve, and does not render a woman infertile (geez, if it did, who would do it?).

Fresh donor egg transfers have a higher live birth rate than regular IVF cycles, so it is a very effective treatment for infertility. The egg donors I work with every day are warm, caring, honest women who want to help others, not con artists. The more you know about egg donation, the less shady it becomes.

The International Program offers one-stop customized assistance, including:

• access to our exclusive database of highly desirable egg donors
• matching service with our pool of carefully selected gestational carriers (surrogate mothers)
• help with finding and registering at the appropriate IVF clinic
• legal referrals
• travel assistance
• complete support in all other aspects of the complicated egg donation process

These services are often restricted or nonexistent in other countries; furthermore, the United States offers state of the art medical care.

Read about NAFG’s International Program in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German; our press release announcement of this new branch of our egg donation and surrogacy program is also available in these languages.

Sanford M. Benardo, Esq., president of Northeast Assisted Fertility Group, appeared on ABC’s The View this week, in an exciting episode co-hosted by special guest Giuliana Rancic focusing on surrogacy.

Update – A summary of what was discussed:

Where is Surrogacy legal?

• Commercial surrogacy – paying someone to carry for you – is illegal in most of the world. In the United States, however, surrogacy is state-law controlled. States in which surrogacy is legal include California, Illinois, and Massachusetts.
• In New York, for example, it is illegal for a state resident to be compensated as a surrogate. A resident of New York who is looking for a carrier, on the other hand, can always engage residents of a state in which surrogacy is legal.

What is the difference between ‘Traditional’ and ‘Gestational’ surrogacy?

• Traditional surrogacy is used to describe a situation in which the carrier or surrogate is using her own egg.
• Gestational surrogacy is the term used when the carrier or surrogate has no genetic relationship to the child.

What makes a good surrogate?

• Ideal carrier candidates are generally middle-class women who have had problem-free pregnancies and have the full support of a husband or partner.

If you would like to learn more about becoming a surrogate be sure to check out our surrogacy FAQ, or if you are seeking a carrier for yourself check out NAFG’s surrogacy page to learn more about how surrogacy works.

In a class action lawsuit filed in April 2011 in California, an egg donor has claimed the ASRM’s compensation cap illegal under the Sherman Act, accusing IVF clinics and agencies of restraint of trade and price fixing. The ASRM sent notice to its members today announcing that it has selected counsel and is beginning work on its defense.

We are eager to see how it is resolved.

Generally, this story is very positive on surrogacy and egg donation. Thernstrom was infertile and unhappy, and egg donation and surrogacy provided her with two healthy children. Furthermore, the medical procedures went smoothly: the first retrieval resulted in a good number of healthy embryos; enough for two separate transfers that both resulted in live births.  She is brave (and right) not to consider her egg donor and carriers as threats to her own maternity.

The piece is her own personal story, so one cannot quibble with her statements of feelings and opinions. But two egregious unsubstantiated points stood out:  ”The Internet was filled with stories of predatory egg-donation and surrogacy agencies” and “There were several cases of surrogacy in recent years in which the surrogate succeeded in keeping the baby despite an absence of any genetic connection.” On the former, the Internet is filled with a lot of stories, many untrue. The vast majority of egg donation agencies are reputable. On the latter, I am unsure of these “several” cases to which she refers. But if a surrogacy takes place in a state with established legal protections in place, and governed by a proper contract, the carrier would have no claims to the child.

Thernstrom quotes the opinions of uninformed others, which she wisely ignores.  Donors and surrogates are compared to both angels and prostitutes; one sensible friend claims that egg donors are ”ordinary young women looking for a way to make money.” (In my experience, this is the case.)  She receives some appalling advice from an egg donor agency director to keep the donation a secret. Thernstrom has a poor opinion of agencies, unfortunately, although her egg donor and one of her carriers started with an agency.

I never heard of Melanie Thernstrom before I read this article. I was surprised to find she is a Harvard-educated writer of some distinction, as the tone and style of the piece is dumbed down and sometimes juvenile (“gazillion” is not a word we’d expect in the New York Times). She opens with a quote from Dante then admits she did not read the book from which it came: surely not the best way to establish trust with your reader, especially when quoting a great work that most literate people have read. Her references to angels and “Fairygoddonor” further undermine our respect. She describes a fantasy of a suicidal ”grungy kid on the bridge” whose fatal impulse is sidetracked by the chitchat of a friendly stranger (an “angel”). Rejuvenated, the kid “goes home and makes an omelet.” I wonder if the egg reference was intended or not; either way, the image is clumsy. It’s the stuff of Oprah’s magazine.

Why are women expected to bring their sophistication down a few notches when writing and reading about motherhood?