What makes Donor Concierge Egg Donor Search and Consulting Services Unique?
The main reason many intended parents initially contact Donor Concierge is to obtain help in locating an egg donor. We retain access to potential candidates through about 70 egg donor agencies, more than anyone in the world. This makes us unique in and of itself, but the greatest value we offer is that we help intended parents to process their emotions and guide them through the monumental event of selecting the right egg donor candidate for them. We help our clients to feel they have done their due diligence and to help them find closure.
For example, Kim is a very bright single woman, an entrepreneur with a thriving business. She has wanted to be a mother for as long as she can remember, but her life being the way it is, she has not had the opportunity to build a family in the traditional way. Having tried several fertility procedures unsuccessfully, she is now ready to consider finding an egg donor which will be her best option to be able to carry a baby, give birth, and experience motherhood.
Intellectually, Kim has come to terms with the fact that her family heritage will not be represented, but making the leap to choose another woman whose genetics will enable her to have a child is a whole new philosophy that she will need to embrace, which is where Donor Concierge comes in. Kim calls us after she has chosen her sperm donor, which is another story and not our area of expertise. She knows that she needs to select a donor who will represent her side of the genetic equation, but is struggling with how will she find someone with whom she thinks she can relate in order to help build her family?
After a lengthy phone consultation with me, Kim decides to employ our services to help her find an egg donor. Irene, the Senior Case Manager working with Kim, first confirms her desired criteria, then begins the donor search. Keeping Kim’s photos front and center, Irene combs site after site to find a donor who looks like she will fit into Kim’s family. The photos are more than just a template for matching physical attributes; they serve as a way for us to get to know our clients and to get a feel for who they are as people. What we are searching for is far more extensive than simply matching hair and eye color; it is often a search for the intangible elements that will help the intended parents feel there is something about this donor that they really like. Our goal is for a donor to truly appeal to the intended parents, for them to feel a connection with the donor, and for her to possess traits that they believe will fit into their family. It is not that we have the illusion that their future child will possess all of these exact same traits, but it is important for the intended parents to feel confident and content with the donor they choose.
Irene sends Kim the first set of egg donor profiles and asks for feedback to ensure we are finding the types of candidates that are in line with Kim’s expectations. This can be difficult because we are dealing with unique individuals and we can never exchange one woman's traits for another, but we can get a sense of who the intended parent seems to gravitate toward. Kim sees a few candidates that she likes so Irene follows up on those donors as well as continues to search the remaining agency sites for more possible candidates. Once Irene has finished searching all of the sites, Kim has 45 potential donors who are all in the ballpark of the criteria she has given us. She then focuses in on her top five donors and Irene verifies each donor’s availability. Once they are confirmed to be available and willing to donate, Irene sends Kim a brief report outlining the availability of each of the five donors, their cycle history if they are a prior donor, and the fees associated with each of these candidates.
Over a two to four week period, Irene spend hours each day working with Kim, emailing and talking by phone to help her think through which egg donor might be the best choice for her. In the end, with the input from myself and Irene, who has also been acting as a liaison with Kim’s egg donor coordinator at the clinic, Kim narrows her search down to her top two candidates. We recommend that she reserve them both, since she cannot decide between the two, then have their profiles sent to her RE to see which one he thinks would be an optimal match from a medical perspective. Based on the advice of her RE, she chooses to have both egg donors FSH and AMH tested, along with an ultrasound of their ovaries before she chooses her donor.
