I officially started thinking about egg donation back in my sophomore year of college.
The seed was planted after taking a human sexuality course and seeing the extreme measures that people will go to just to have a baby that is their own. One example that stands out in my mind was the couple that paid fantastic sums of money so that a surgeon could painstakingly search through the husband’s testicles to find one viable sperm (he supposedly had none at all). After about 6 hours or so, the doctor finally found one–although, I don’t know if “viable” would be the word to describe it. It was very small, somewhat deformed, and could only really swim/twitch about in circles. I felt pretty sorry for it, but apparently even a twitchy, “developmentally challenged” sperm is good enough for makin’ babies. The couple ended up having a beautiful baby girl.
So, seeing such a success story got me to thinking. Many of you who know me know that I don’t really plan on ever having children. I figured that since I definitely wasn’t going to be using my eggs any time soon, maybe somebody else could. Being paid to give up your eggs was another big plus as well.
Once I’d made up my mind, I sat down and did my research. Comparing facilities, seeing which ones seemed the most legitimate, which ones used fewer drugs, which ones had higher success rates, etc, etc. I finally settled on a fertility clinic located in the Roseville area, about 2 hours away from where I live. The intake and screening process is long, arduous, and a little hilarious–something for a later post.
The entire process is kept confidential, which is why I don’t think I can mention the exact name or location of the clinic. When you become a donor, they also don’t refer to you by your true name. You’re given a pseudonym attached to a number. For instance, they might decide to call you “Lily-1138.” It’s supposed to make it easier for them to look up your records and protect your privacy, but honestly, the first thing I thought of was HK-47 from Knights of the Old Republic, a smart-alec assassin droid who was definitely not interested in anyone’s fertility problems.
Then I thought of an egg donating robot.
An….egg….bot, if you will.
July 27, 2009 at 12:55 pm
I hope it’s not too weird to comment. I found your entire blog fascinating! You’re amazingly cool for being willing to share this with passerby.
To add to your possible Lucas inspire acronyms, I immediately thought of THX 1138 when reading this. HK-47 works just fine though! I guess we’re all just meat bags to him.
“Explanation: It’s just that… you have all these squishy parts, master. And all that water! How the constant sloshing doesn’t drive you mad, I have no idea…”"
July 27, 2009 at 10:23 pm
So happy that you enjoyed it! My extraction date is coming up this Wednesday. I’ll be updating tomorrow, I think. And you get 50 extra cool points for knowing and loving HK-47.