Egg Donation Blog | Diving Into the Wreck

A woman in the United States documenting her egg donation journey while curating blog posts and relevant studies for past, present, and prospective egg donors. ♥ ♥ Check the FAQ for information. ♥ Check out my recommended websites for a list of resources, recommended clinics, and educational materials. ♥ Click here to see posts organized by topic. ♥ Don’t hesitate to ask any questions. ♥ sc_online_t(1065111,"Currently Visiting","ad2376"); Tumblr Users Online Counter

[uvb76fan]

new research just came out showing that women's eggs do not genetically age almost at all from age 20 to age 42 and birth defects correlated with parental age are probably nearly exclusively related to the father's age

[vladtheunfollower]

[bloodbreadovum]

Disappointed, but not at all surprised! Women are erased from ever nook and cranny of history, even from the development of medical processes that involve our very own bodies.

[bloodbreadovum]

Just checked my donor profile for updates, and I found out the couple from donation #5 is pregnant (and by that I mean their surrogate is pregnant)!

Two egg donor babies in the world and three currently in the works!

[bloodbreadovum]

Donation #5 Med Protocol and Recovery

This medication protocol was pretty similar to the last three donations, but I was supposed to get updates through the donor portal for changes in my medications. Unfortunately, their donor profile system was down for the majority of my donation, and before we found a workaround for the portal, I was getting medical updates via email.

I started medications on 01/13/19 in the evening.

150 IU Gonal F

75 IU Menopur (one vial)

I kept this schedule until the 17th after my next ultrasound and labwork appointment.

On the 17th, my med protocol changed to:

150 IU Gonal F

75 IU Menopur (one vial)

250mcg Ganirelix Acetate (they sent Cetrotide instead, which I had never used before so I had to learn to mix that on my own with some help from the emergency on-call medications nurse)

I went to the California clinic on the 19th for my updated bloodwork and they changed my meds in a weird way.

125 IU Gonal F

112.5 IU Menopur (that’s a vial and a half, and yes, it burned like a ************)

0.25 mg Cetrotide

On the 21st my med protocol changed to:

100 IU Gonal F

150 IU Menopur (TWO vials!!)

0.25 mg Cetrotide

On the 22nd, the nurse instructed me to go home and take the rest of my medications in the morning.

150 IU Menopur

0.25 mg Cetrotide

No Gonal F

My trigger shot would be that evening at 9:30 pm.

Lupron Trigger, injected 80 IU subcutaneously

HCG Trigger 2500 IU subcutaneously

9:30 am on the 23rd:

Lupron Trigger, injected 80 IU subcutaneously

I had never taken more than one dose of Menopur at once. The doctor was anxious about my “low” follicle count (31 eggs were retrieved during my 4th donation, and he said we wouldn’t be getting that many this time), which makes me wonder if that’s why he upped the Menopur so much. They retrieved 22 eggs, which is the exact same amount as my second donation which led to 8 frozen embryos. It makes me wonder just how many eggs he believes a “good” number would be?

My recovery was normal. I could walk the afternoon after my retrieval just fine, but I was pressured by my travel companion to take a Lyft for any walks that would be over 10 minutes long. The Lyft All-Access plan saved me a ton on this trip, and I’d recommend all traveling donors with a Lyft budget look into it.

I was uncomfortable for about 4 more days with the odd cramp every time I had to kneel or bend, but the bloating went down after a week. My boobs still feel heavy, but I also just started my period so they may go down once that has passed.

My agency coordinator already asked me about donating for a sixth time. I asked about upping my potential compensation to the maximum listed on their website and she said she wasn’t sure I would get matched with that amount. 🙄 I probably wouldn’t donate for any less at this point. I also remade my profile with Circle Egg Donation, which is a much more popular agency, so we’ll see where that goes.

[bloodbreadovum]

I went to a local clinic for my last local monitoring appointment and they had be take my pants off and wait in a sono room for about 30 minutes before coming in an telling me they didn't know why I was here and they didn't have orders for my appointment today. 💀

This donation has been the biggest clusterfuck. I think this issue has more to do with the local clinic's disorganization. I've been a donor here before and they pulled my old file from 2018, lol. BUT everything on the California clinic's side has been a nightmare to navigate. They didn't sent me the right FDA donor testing kit. I guess the first one didn't have enough tubes for blood, and they haven't been able to confirm that I don't have West Nile. 💀💀💀 They asked me to get it redraw and start the meds anyway, but they keep including the wrong order number in the blood draw orders so I keep having to email and call everyone frantically when I go in for the draws just to try and find someone who knows what the fuck they're doing.

New donors who may be reading this, don't donate with C*lifornia F*rtility P*rtners.

[bloodbreadovum]

I’m currently on cycle 5. I just checked my profile to see if there were any updates from my previous cycle, and look! Twins from cycle #4! In all of my egg donation contracts, I’ve requested that IPs inform me of every live birth and inform me of the results of every embryo created from my donations. So far, only IP #1 has reached out to me personally to tell me of his transfer success. No one else has even tried to send an update through the agency. :/ Looks like I’ll have to keep making fake IP accounts if I want updates.

[bloodbreadovum]

When I was trying to negotiate my compensation for my current donation, I was told my agency has never given a donor a payment of more than $11,000. Well, today I was browsing their website, and APPARENTLY,

Egg Donor Compensation: $7,000-$14,000*

We appreciate the time and effort our egg donors put forth in the process and we know you will too. Each egg donor has a compensation between $7,000-$14,000.  All first time donors are $7,000.  With each subsequent egg donation cycle an egg donor is compensated an additional $500-$2,000 up to $10,000 in most cases. Some egg donors may request up to $14,000.

They acted like I was asking for something completely unreasonable, but then have this up on their website to be viewed publicly? They must think donors are all clueless nincompoops. I’m definitely bringing this amount up if I get matched through them again. It’s a little offputting! They acted so offended!! For no good reason but to try and sweeten the deal for the couple who selected me! Not great.

[bloodbreadovum]

I'm always the least-feminine, shortest egg donor in the waiting room. I'm such an outlier for what egg donors usually look like but I must be doing something right because I'm on donation #5!

[bichaotic]

I don’t remember where I saw the post, but someone once made a very good point about how reproductive autonomy is not tied to one’s genetic relationship to the fetus.

If I, a woman, donate eggs for another woman, who then has them fertilized by her partner’s sperm, I have no say in whether or not she chooses to terminate that pregnancy later on after implantation. Yes, I would be that child’s biological mother, but it isn’t my body that will go through the process of pregnancy, and therefore my input would be irrelevant.

So far no dude I told this to has been able to justify why they thought they, as the father, should have a say in what their hypothetically-pregnant partner chooses to do.

Nature did not distribute the reproductive burden equally between men and women and our legislation on reproductive issues needs to take this into account.

[oatmealtrash]

“Nature did not distribute the reproductive burden equally between men and women and our legislation on reproductive issues needs to take this into account.”

YES!!

[bloodbreadovum]

Hi, I just wanted to let you know your link for "List of Recommended Clinics" doesn't seem to be working.

Thanks for the heads up! It looks like the ASRM took that page off their website. My opinion of the ASRM has changed since starting this blog, so I think it’s best just to leave it off.

[bloodbreadovum]

uninformed “egg sharing”

A woman in the We Are Egg Donors Facebook group posted about her IPs receiving less than half of the eggs she was told she donated. Many responded suggesting it may have been a miscommunication between the clinic and the IPs, that maybe they were only told the number of mature eggs or viable embryos produced. She said no, they were told she only produced 8 eggs from her donation, an incredibly low number for a donor in the United States.

Scandal and shady practices surrounding egg donation in the United States is not uncommon, but I’d never heard about this lawsuit against Options National Fertility Registry for selling donor eggs under the table in direct violation to their contracts. Someone posted the screenshots of the main complaints to the thread.

Another donor commented on the original post with this:

I’ve donated through one agency and three different clinics: Las Vegas Fertility Center, Dallas Fertility Center, and Fort Worth Fertility. As far as I know, they are untouched by any similar scandals, but it’s still a terrifying prospect. Egg donors in the United States donate a ridiculous amount of eggs on average compared to donors in other countries, and the majority of these donations are completely anonymous. Many donors don’t even know exactly how many eggs were taken from their bodies, and without contact with the IPs, how can they know all their donated eggs went to the intended recipients as outlined in their donor contracts.

I’m sweating right now. I am in regular contact with one of the IPs who has a son through my donation. He gave me more details about the eggs I donated, so I feel more confident that he received all my eggs from Las Vegas Fertility Center. My second donation went to a couple who did not use my eggs after they were fertilized, which I only know about because the information was added to my egg donor profile. My third donation produced a baby boy for an older couple, but I have had almost no contact with them. Dallas Fertility took more than my usual number of eggs for my fourth donation, which was also the first donation I did where the resulting embryo would be transferred to a woman with fertility issues instead of a surrogate. I wonder if they upped my dosages for this reason. The recovery was more difficult than my first three, and I took my profile off of my agency website afterward. I have had limited contact with this couple, but I know that they experienced a chemical pregnancy because it was also added to my egg donor profile without my knowledge (prior to me shutting it down).

Fuck. Will the rise of genetic testing kits like 23 and Me and the Ancestry.com kit discourage clinics from selling genetic material under the table? What steps can a donor take to find out their eggs were used by someone else without their knowledge or permission?

My contract explicitly stated that I would be informed of the end result of each embryo produced from my donation. The contract was between me and the recipient parent(s). The clinic was not part of the contract. The clinic could sell my eggs without mine or the IP’s knowledge, circumventing the requirement that I be informed.

This is a mess. According to the lawsuit, that one clinic had been selling eggs under the table for over a decade. How many others? How long until more of these under the table egg donor babies pop up? This is not a risk I anticipated when I started donating.

[gender-critical-appspot]

[bloodbreadovum]

It feels like this sometimes.

[bloodbreadovum]

Altruistic reproductive exchanges leave intact the status of women as a breeder class, whether for producing eggs, fetal tissue, or babies. Women’s bodies are still the raw material for others’ needs, desires, and purposes. The normalization of altruistic exchanges may, in fact, have the effect of further promoting the view that women have a duty or obligation to engage in reproductive arrangements free of charge. In the surrogacy context, altruism essentializes the role of women as mothers for others. This emphasis on giving has become an integral part of reproductive technological propaganda, but this altruistic pedestal on which women are placed is only one more way of glorifying women’s inequality.

Women as Wombs | Janice Raymond

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The medical practitioners of reproductive technology have expert knowledge and make the decisions as to which bodies should exist in greater numbers. Their knowledge comes in part from the well-developed technology of the questionnaire, which itself filters the information available. Further knowledge comes from types of information that non-experts lack access to: ultrasound images, analysis of blood. Their technologies of hormonal injections to control the menstrual cycle and induce ovarian hyperstimulation create, from the somewhat chaotic bodies of the donor and the recipient of eggs, regulated bodies that move in sync. Such extreme regulation of the body through the imposition of expert knowledge is characteristic of biopower, related to the general Foucauldian idea of discipline consisting of hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment, and examination. The doctor of reproductive technology does not simply learn from the preexistent female reproductive system but participates in its construction in order to mold it into something socially useful.

“Complicating Power in High-Tech Reproduction: Narratives of Anonymous Paid Egg Donors” | Anne Pollock

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Trigger Shot

I just did my trigger shot. Things I’m feeling right now:

nauseous

dizzy

achy (left ovary/surrounding innards)

My meds were extended for what I think was a day longer than usual this cycle. I’m nervous about the retrieval. A nurse told me I already have some “free fluid” that’s visible on the ultrasound, and I’ve been told to do two injections of ganirelix after my retrieval. I’ve never been given those instructions before, but I know they’re usually given to donors at risk of developing OHSS.

I normally have easy recoveries, even when I’ve previously triggered with an hCG trigger. We’ll see how this one goes.

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend s3e10

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Egg Donor Meds

Mixing Menopur during your first donation

Mixing Menopur during your fourth donation