Let’s talk about: Egg Donation!
This is a controversial new policy, as experts believe this will encourage more women to donate, but critics warn it may create financial incentives. Unlike the policy in other countries, notably the US, under EU rules a donor cannot be "paid" for agreeing to donate their eggs, however they can be "compensated".
Juliet Tizzard, head of policy at the HFEA, said the current rules did not work and "some donors are out of pocket and they do feel undervalued at times". Juliet also argued that £750 isn’t a large enough financial inducement to encourage someone to donate their eggs just for financial gain, but would cover the adequate expenses the £250 payment just wasn’t covering.
Egg donation is an invasive process, which involves daily hormone injections, scans every couple of days, and day surgery to recover the eggs.
Long-time gurgle member Ann Coates has bravely agreed to share her struggle with finding an egg donor so that she and her husband can have the baby they long for.
Ann has already conducted extensive research into travelling abroad for an egg donor, where donors are better paid and therefore more women donate their eggs, because the waiting list is so long in the UK. Ann therefore welcomes the new guidelines as she says “I know how hard is to have to wait for an egg donor when you’ve already waited so long to have the baby you want.”
The gurgle team were amazed and delighted to hear that so many of you were independently joining together to support Ann.
Nicole1993 who had the original idea to raise money for Ann, has set up an easyfundraising account, so that you can raise money whilst doing your normal online shopping. Other gurgle members are holding raffles, ‘guess the number of sweets in the jar’ contests, and even contemplating sky dives!
You can follow this thread to find out how you could help Ann, and read about what other gurgle members are doing to support her.
Finally, a word from Ann herself: “I’m delighted that the girls who responded to Nicole’s post were very keen to fund raise for us. Many of their plans to do this have not worked out due to financial difficulties: we totally understand and we remain very touched that they wanted and tried to help. We now have to find the money ourselves.
Privately, one attempt at donor IVF costs £7,500- 8,500, and we are struggling to find any funding at all. Because I am just over 39 we are not entitled to any free treatment on the NHS. My husband is 37 and his age is not taken into account, even though neither of us have any children. The worry of finding a donor is enormous as is the amount of money the whole process takes.
However we are determined to stay strong and never ever give up. I also would like to thank Tor and gurgle for the kindness and support they have shown in writing this article.”
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