Pretoria - More and more families affected by fertility problems have turned to egg donations as their preferred option of having children, saying they not only give them the chance to have babies, but also provide them with the chance to experience pregnancy and give birth.
The highly sensitive procedure is carefully controlled in South African facilities and is highly recommended across the world, Pretoria fertility expert Dr Becky McCullum said.
“The environment under which it is done is strictly controlled - stringent testing is carried out for both donor and recipient and discretion is granted,” she said.
The process involves a willing woman putting herself up as a potential donor; conditions attached include submitting to the required tests and being committed to the process once it starts.
At the end of their role, they would have provided a mother with eggs ready for ovulation in a trend described as highly beneficial to many families who might have lost hope.
“What we offer here is a chance at a pregnancy, we give a chance in a situation where there is none. We facilitate hope,” Baby2Mom founder Jennie Curry said.
Curry, who herself struggled to conceive and suffered the pain of many failed in-vitro fertilisation procedures before eventually getting pregnant, said: “There is nothing as heartbreaking and painful as being told you cannot have children.”
Women and men from across many sectors of society had put to good use the egg donation service and for a number of reasons.
“We assist gay men, single women, women with known and unknown fertility problems and those referred to this procedure when all else has failed,” Curry said.
The need for eggs was the result of many problems, and they ranged from premature menopause to the cycle of ovarian functions stopping.
“Women have a fixed number of eggs, and when they are finished they are finished,” she said.
The ovarian reserve was also depleted with age, she said, while others preferred not to pass on hereditary diseases to their unborn children.
Some couples decided to have children later on in life and this also contributed to the gaining popularity of egg donations.
According to the Southern African Society of Reproductive Medicine, the numbers and success rates have climbed steeply in the past 15 or so years with the advancement of technology.
And, while the demand has grown, there has also been an increase in the number of people willing to give their eggs to those in need.
“Data bases exist across the country, made up of many women who have come forward and offered their eggs for the benefit of other women,” McCullum said.
Not all eggs given result in a pregnancy, but these women give a chance for pregnancy where none exists. “Through these women we facilitate hope in situations where it no longer existed,” Curry added.
She called it a beautiful process, where women came forward with the offer to heal.
Joburg-based Seed of Life’s Lindy Kelly said, while there was a lot of awareness around the quality of life provided by donating eggs, there was room for more awareness raising.
“Women need to understand that they flush their eggs down the toilet every month anyway, but if they pass them on to someone who can make use of them, then they are better people.”
There was no pay for donating eggs, but donors were compensated for their time and effort.
Donations ranged from R5 000 to R9 000 as requested by the agencies providing the service, and these are incorporated into the fees paid by the recipients.
The fees could be anything between R30 000 to R70 000 and they covered the medical fees for both women, which include fertility treatment for the donor, the agency fee and transport for the donor if the recipient identified a woman who was not in their immediate vicinity.
This family-building method was not without its problems, and faces criticism from religious groupings and cultural organisations which claim that nature is being tampered with.
Testimonials on the various egg donor agencies paint the picture of happy families built on the generosity of donors and the satisfaction felt by donors at the knowledge that they had given others a gift of life.
How to become an egg donor and what makes a woman eligible
To become egg donors, women must be between 18 and 35 years of age, generally healthy and free of chronic diseases and any known mental problems.
New Life SA says healthy women produce 1-2 million eggs in their lifetimes, which get wasted.
On the other hand, thousands of childless couples face severe psychological strain due to the inability of the female partner to produce healthy eggs with high reproductive potential.
Steps include:
* Identifying an agency and signing up to be a donor.
* Filling in questions about health, weight, BMI and general lifestyle.
* If she is satisfactory, a woman is added to the agency’s list of potential donors.
Once identified by a recipient as the preferred donor based on information provided, the donor is contacted by the agency to:
* Ascertain availability.
* Check if circumstances allowing donation still exist.
* Confirm willingness to go through with the process.
* Weight, BMI, blood diseases, psychological assessment and general well-being are checked.
* Fertility specialists do an ultrasound, pelvic examination and blood tests.
The treatment itself is then started.
* The donor and recipient mothers’ menstrual cycles are first synchronised.
* Daily fertility medication, meant to produce as many healthy eggs as possible, is initiated.
* Frequent monitoring during the 14-day ovulation process.
Egg Retrieval
* Procedure under sedation, where eggs are retrieved vaginally.
* The eggs are then fertilised in a controlled environment, and then implanted (vaginally) after a few days.
Pretoria News