Embryo Donation/Adoption

[sabcab13]

I am currently looking for advise on how to donate my embryos. I have very mixed feelings about the process and want to talk with someone who has done this before or advise on where to start. I struggled with infertility for 10 years and we were finally blessed with twins in 09. To give this gift to someone else would be priceless! But that's just it. I don't want to give it to just anyone. (this is why I do not want to rush to a donor center)

[stirlingk]

Bumping. I'd like to know more about this process too (I like to keep my options open for starting our family) :-)

[Apple Blossom]

I don't have any experience with this, but I'd suggest you start with your fertility center. Find out if they offer a program, or could recommend one. I'd be curious if you have some control (like adoption) or less control (like egg donation). Please let us know what you find out, because it could be a good resource for the rest of us

Thanks!

[harleymaggiemae]

Check out this blog. She lost her bio child at almost 23w due to an infection. She went on to embryo adoption, but if memory serves, it was more of an online form where she met the woman who ended up donating her embryos - so the mom picked ultimately, then they moved on to the legality of it all.

It was a while ago, so you may need to scroll back.

http://roadlesstraveledblog.blogspot.com/

[cassiam]

I hope to one day after I have my own blessing, to donate, so information would be awesome.

[NicoleP80]

Embryo adoption is very similar to any adoption but you typically go through your fertility clinic or one that specializes in it. The potentional adoptive parents still go through the adoption homestudy process to make sure they are suitable parents. Its a lengthy process as is domestic adoption. Your fertility clinic does not just hand out embryos like they do sperm at the sperm bank It is a bit of a process! What a wonderful gift you are thinking of offering someone!

[SeattleKnitChick]

I've heard of people using their clinic (I think this may be more expensive to the receiving couple), using a website like http://www.miracleswaiting.org/ to connect, or I also know of some people who donated to an acquaintance/friend. There are also some really strict places that have potential "adoptive" couples complete a home study etc. I wish I knew someone who had embryos to donate to me - I've hesitated at using my clinic to do this because it's pretty expensive there and if I'm going to be spending 5-6k I think I would want to spend it on an adoption that I feel has a pretty good chance of working - not one where my fertility challenged body could mess it up!

Good luck! It's AWESOME you are considering this! Whoever receives your gift will be very lucky!

[YahishaTQ]

Christy,

I don’t have any direct advice on how to go about this process but I want to share our story.

As you can see from my signature line, my journey to become a mother has been long. We had pretty much closed the door on this idea and were trying to move on. Then early this year my RE called to say that the clinic was terminating their donor embryo program. They offered us the opportunity to select embryos before they transferred them all to a national center.

The only information I have on the donating parents is that via IVF they were able to conceive and come full term. They had decided to not further expand their family and had donated the embryos for other patients a the clink. Since the embryos were not created with the specific intent of being donated there was very limited information on the biological parents: weight, hair color, eye color, blood type, height, race (sometimes) and hardly no medical history.

The donation process is actually very simple. The physicians decide who they will offer this option to and as per my RE it is a very small number of patients that are offered this choice. It is a blind donation in which I do not know the biological parents (wish I could see their picture!). I don’t even know if they were notified that the transfer had been completed.

We completed some notarized documents that state that we accept responsibility of the donated embryos as well as understand that they are not biologically ours. Once we submitted these documents the embryos were officially transferred to our ownership. We also had to complete pysochological conseling to ensure that were we sound mind to make this decision and help work on what part of our story, if anything, we would share with friends and family.

The day that I went to the clinic and flipped through the few pages of information….my breath was literally sucked out of my body. I wept. I wept as I read the biological mother’s age, hair color, eye color. I wept when I realized the boundless generosity of this woman, of her husband. Their selflessness overwhelmed me. They have gone through the same pain my husband and I have to conceive and yet they were trusting us with this gift.

We are just about to start our FET process this month. I know that there are great risks and that a BFN is still a very possible outcome but I will be forever thankful to them for this opportunity.

Good luck with your decisions. Please feel free to contact me any time.

[ayrhead]

We are currently doing IUI cycles, there is some male factor combined with my PCOS. A few days ago, we sat with our RE here in Seattle, and it looks like IVF is somewhere in our near future. While I was talking with my nurse, and signing all of the paperwork, we started discussing embryo donation. We have to make a decision now, about what will happen to our embryos should we "abandon" them, or no longer wish to use them. Our clinic is in the beginning stages of starting an embryo donation program, and according to the nurse, the process will be less restrictive, and less arbitrary than some of the private embryo adoption agencies. It is something worth considering.

[rrazey]

My husband and I are starting the process of adopting embryos the first of the year and from what I have gathered from my research the process varies greatly depending on where you live. You can also have different levels ofinvolvement with picking the adoptive parents. I just want to say thank you soso so much for passing on the joy of motherhood! I know how much this means tome and how much it will mean to the lucky lady/couple that receives your embryos!

[Katybay]

We are looking to adopt embryos!
Hello! Yes, We are looking to adopt embryos. My husband and I have been married for 8 yrs.
We have had such a long journey on the infertility path. We do have a son from embryos we adopted from a couple from MN.
We have an open adoption. It is really positive and has worked out really well. We see then at least once a year.
Otherwise we call each other. We have established a relationship that works good for us.

I would love to talk to you and tell you more about our family.
My husband and I grew up in the same hometown in SD. We went to the same schools all the way through High School. I moved to Mpls to go to college for photography and He stay to go to our Hometown University as an art student (bronze sculptor). We are each others best friends and would not have it any other way. We love to giggle and have a million and one inside jokes.
He was a city slicker and I grew up on a farm. His father had a wood shop that he and his friends worked in. Along with helping out at his Grandfathers paint business. He grew up with 4 brother and 2 sisters. I grew up with 3 sister and 2 brothers like I said on a farm. I learned how to drive a tractor, combine, grain truck ect.. best of all I raised and showed horses.

I would love to talk to you more and hear a response back from you!