Facilitating a Meeting Between an Egg Donor and Intended Parents

Recently, we had the privilege of facilitating another in-person meeting between a set of intended parents from Australia and their egg donor. The intended parents have had a tough road trying to conceive. After years of unsuccessful pregnancies, they realized that it was time to try to conceive via egg donation.

Australia has strict guidelines for egg donation, which decreases the pool of egg donor candidates. Because of these strict guidelines, they knew it was an uphill battle. They knew time was of the essence, so they looked for an egg donor outside of Australia. They spent months researching different egg donor programs and fertility clinics in the United States and around the world. Their search lead them to Donor Nexus. Upon reviewing several egg donor profiles, Donor B struck a chord with the intended parents. Their search was over, Donor B was exactly what they were looking for.

A Recap of an Open Egg Donation Meeting

As we sat down to start the meeting, the intended parents expressed that they didn’t have a set of questions they wanted to ask her. They just wanted to meet with her to get a sense of her personality.

With these types of meetings, we always encourage the egg donor to ask questions as well. It’s equally important for the egg donor to know who will raise the child as it is for the intended parents to know the donor.

It’s not always the egg donor who is in the hot seat. Donor B had some questions she wanted to ask so she could get to know the intended parents as well. Donor B asked them what they did for a living, if they had any nieces or nephews, what their family dynamic was like, and how they met.

The intended mother shared that they met online and that the intended mother instantly knew the intended father was the one. The same feeling she had when she read through Donor B’s profile. The intended mother said she knew intuitively that Donor B was the one!

The egg donor felt very at ease knowing that her donation was going to a loving couple that had gone to great lengths to have a child.

As we wrapped up the meeting, you could tell a bond was forming. The intended parents expressed how grateful they were to the donor and how this gift would afford them the opportunity to have their dreams come true. This hit home to the egg donor as she is a mother and knows how much joy having a child brings to one's life.

The donor expressed how lucky she felt to have been selected by them and mentioned that she looked forward to seeing them again.

These types of meetings remind us why our work as an egg donor agency is so important. We help facilitate relationships between two groups of individuals who would never have crossed paths otherwise.

In May 2017, the intended parent was confirmed pregnant!

Related Reading:

• Anonymous vs. Open Egg Donation (and Hybrid Options)
• Finding Common Ground: An Intended Parent and Egg Donor Meeting
• Pen Pals: Letters Between an Intended Parent and Egg Donor
• Finding Hope After Failed IVF: Sandy's Journey to Parenthood