Here is what one of our male members had to add:
Quote:
Nice thread - obviously I can't post directly (being more suited to sperm donation) but I do have a little relevant experience, as my wife and I went through a round of IVF a couple of years ago.
One thing that I would mention is that there are some negatives that need to be considered. The hormones that you need to take have a massive systemic effect and can lead to long term health issues - in the case of my wife, within a year of the harvesting she started to show symptoms of Fibromyalgia which have left her with a permanent disability; she had a year off work before her medication and therapy got it under control, and she's still weak and in pain a lot.
The number and frequency of the injections can't be underestimated. You have to self medicate every day, and if you don't like needles that can be very hard.
It is also worth noting that the harvesting procedure itself can be painful. My wife likened it to her worst ever period cramps, but for a week.
In the UK, donors cannot remain anonymous, so there is also the possibility that in 18 years you will have a son or daughter try to contact you.
I don't want to make out that there are no positives, because you've itemised them well yourself; I just thought it worth mentioning some of the negatives, because most of the people involved in the process have a vested interest in you deciding to go ahead - by definition all the ones who don't like egg donation tend not to be involved in educating you about it!
Whatever you decide, leave it a few weeks before going ahead, and see if you can still agree with your original decision - also talk to those close to you, they will need to support you during the process after all.
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As for the responses so far:
Donating eggs is definitely time consuming but I'm hoping I can work around that okay. One of my biggest concerns is that there are not very many studies that look at the effect of all the medicines used. The few I can find are small (n<100) and they do not follow up after more than 20 years or so. It does seem like most patients do not have problems conceiving afterwards though.
I won't be doing this until after July so keep the responses coming!