Donor Concierge: "And What Do You Do?"
At a younger time in my life, I winced when asked the standard ‘And What Do You Do’ question at a gathering where people awkwardly attempt idle chit-chat. Both the question, and the answer (I worked in the media) seemed so…vacuous.
These days, answering that question has become much more straightforward. As one of five case managers at Donor Concierge, my job is so much more than just desk research. Searching through thousands of profiles, on more than 100 egg donor and surrogate agency sites, we try to take the emotion out of a journey that we know many of our clients would rather not be undertaking.
No one wants to have to use an egg donor - unless of course you are one of our many male couples and singles who are so very excited at the prospect and opportunity to start families that they are just happy for us to help them along on that journey.
A majority of our clients come to us after years of struggling with infertility, after many rounds of IVF treatment and often distraught that all their hopes and dreams of their own biological children have now been dashed.
Under Gail’s wonderful and compassionate guidance, we hope that you find solace that someone is on your side, that we can help you by doing the search for an egg donor on your behalf. Often people at this stage in their fertility journey feel that they’ve lost their identity somewhere along the path – juggling successful careers with trying to achieve a dream of parenthood can leave even the most resilient person feeling a little broken.
A client recently came to us feeling a little lost – he’d found an donor he felt comfortable with but was having trouble understanding the whole donation process and had little help from the donor’s agency. ‘Who’s looking out for me?’, he said.
All of us at Donor Concierge have had experience with fertility struggles – whether on a personal or professional level. Our job is not just to use our research skills to find an egg donor, but to provide an empathetic ear for people who feel overwhelmed. Sometimes we gently remind clients that we are helping them find a donor that suits them – not replaces them. In the end, your influence is what matters when raising that child, not just the donor’s genetics. We try to help you navigate the process of egg donation from simply finding a donor during a basic search, to more of an intimate role of following up on possible donors during our premium search.
Another client of mine was feeling dejected with the whole experience of searching for an egg donor. “Keep your eye on the prize”, I told her, because in the end, that’s all that really matters.
