Help Romeo and Juliet, it’s a love story

By Jackie, egg donor

I am not an amazing person but I have done something very special for a couple who needed an egg donor.

I had my children in my twenties and getting pregnant was almost too easy! I had postnatal depression and bonding wasn’t instant but I’ve always known my life wouldn’t be complete without my two kids. As a child I watched two of my mother’s best friends struggling to have a family of their own.

Although I am fit and well my family medical records aren’t perfect, so I never thought the BCRM would want my eggs. I heard on the local news that couples were having to wait almost three years for donor eggs, so I thought it was time for me to ask if I was suitable and at least then I would have tried to help.

I was over the moon when I received a phone call asking me to come in for screening. It took some time to get through the blood tests and research into my medical history. You just have to remember you would want the doctors to be through if you were the recipient!

Before starting the treatment I was worried about remembering to do the nasal spray but it was amazing how well it fitted into my routine and family life.

I had been matched with two recipient couples. I don’t know much about my recipients it is simply not allowed. I have named them “Adam and Eve” and “Romeo and Juliet” two couples very much in love and would do anything for a baby. Eve has no eggs whereas Juliet has waited over two years for donor eggs for other reasons.

Unfortunately my body didn’t respond well to the treatment and Romeo and Juliet have had to return to the waiting list for another donor.

I will be going to Southmead hospital soon for the harvesting of my eggs, I hope the treatment results in a baby for Adam and Eve. Whatever happens I know I will have given it my best shot and they will have been given a chance to try.

I am not worried about whether any donor offspring will contact me. It will be my choice whether to accept or decline contact. I have left a non-identifying description of my personality, characteristics, likes and dislikes to satisfy the curiosity of any offspring. I have told my family and friends, so I personally am not against an opportunity to answer questions or give a medical record update. Any donor offspring may look like my DNA or like their father’s DNA, a man I’ll never meet. My children can contact the HFEA to make sure they never marry donor offspring.

I am only giving away eggs which I would never use, it would be a shame to waste them when they are so desperately wanted by another women. Does this really make me amazing?

In a couple of months I’ll be too old (36) to have the treatment again to help make Romeo and Juliet’s dreams come true so I hope more ladies decide to become egg donors and they get help very soon.

Tags: egg donation, egg donor, UK