Egg Donor Chosen

As mentioned, I decided to select an Indian egg donor and was given several profiles to review. It's a daunting task at first but I separated them into three files (i.e., no, maybe, yes) before shortlisting them down to a handful of profiles. I made the first cut based purely on their look. I was offered donors with fair complexions - a safe assumption in my case given the racial make-up of my son and baby on the way. For each egg donor, you receive one or two photos plus other details such as:

• Age - most appear to be in their 20s but rest assure they are tested for fertility
• Occupation
• Height - my minimum height requirement is 5'3 appreciating it's not a very tall race
• Personality - usually one-word descriptors
• Eye and hair colour - mainly black although some do have light-coloured eyes
• Diet - vegetarian or not
• Marital status - separated, divorced, married, or unmarried
• Gender and age of any children - I want an egg donor who had delivered at least one child
• Reasons for being an egg donor
• Brief message to intended parents
• Education - those with higher education cost more

On each profile, there might be a note indicating any previous donations including the number of eggs retrieved and any pending pregnancies; however, it is not always noted so don't be shy to ask. My chosen egg donor had no note on her profile but she had 18 eggs retrieved in her last donation. Unfortunately, due to low-quality sperm, that donation did not result in a pregnancy. My little guys are strong so I don't have any concerns.

One final thing - some egg donors don't remain available long so when the time comes, put in your request for the ones you want. Don't be discouraged if your top choices are already chosen. There are seriously enough egg donors available to have many top choices. Of course, if you insist on a particular egg donor, you can wait for her to become available.

So what happens now? I'm impatiently waiting for the treatment schedule so I can start planning. However, I must first decide if I would like to implant one or two surrogates - a decision that needs to be made 6 weeks prior to egg collection or when I confirm treatment schedule if it is less than 6 weeks away. I believe I will receive surrogate profiles closer to egg collection.

Thank you for letting me share this part of my world with you!