Archive for February, 2009

I ♥ My Egg Donor

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

BHED (Beverly Hills Egg Donation) helped make our dreams come true!!  It took me many a month to find my donor; only because it did not turn to BHED first!  There were so many egg donor agencies out there, but none measured up to the quality and standards of BHED.  When I went onto their site it was three minutes until I saw the face of our egg donor.  I panicked thinking it was all too good to be true, and it was a matter of minutes before Lisa, the founder of BHED, got back to me!  The information on my donor was more extensive and complete than any of the ten other egg donation agencies I had been looking through day after day, trying to find “her”.  Not only that, but Lisa answered hundreds of questions of my behalf and always got back to me asap with a very caring, businesslike, and to-the-point attitude.  When dealing with even “noted” and highly recommended agencies, besides BHED, no such thing happened.  I caught some of the other reps, many a time, trying to “back-peddle” the information they had given me.

Then came our dear Ellie, our donor rep., who became my friend.  She would email me anything I asked for whether it be more pictures of our donor, a calming note to help me in a panic attack, continual updates on the movement of everything, and even passed along notes that I wised for our donor to read.  These people became family to us, and it felt like they wanted this dream to come true for us just as much as we did!

They truly have the most beautiful and highest-quality egg donors and a professional, NO B.S., to-the-point staff; and I know because we went looking through many different agencies before I found My BHED.  We had actually found an egg donor through one of the others, but our doctor advised us against her because of her family’s medical history.  It is something BHED puts extensively right out in front so we were aware of everything before making our choice, and as not to waste precious time.  When I saw our donor at BHED, I knew we had found her, we had found each other!  They talk about that “feeling” you get when it is all just “right”, but I was not aware of it until BHED.  We are now five months pregnant, and all our prayers have been answered.  Thank you my donor, and thank you Lisa, Ellie, our amazing lawyer connected to the agency, and all at BHED!!!  Happy New Year, this one will truly BE a happy one for us!  God bless, and may all your dreams come true on your journey!

-Wendy, Recipient

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Travel: The Hidden Expense

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

istock 000004916707small 300x200 Travel: The Hidden Expense

One of the major benefits in working with a professional agency in managing your egg donation arrangement is the pre-approved protocols and costs.  The one cost that my vary, depending on the location of your donor and of your fertility clinic, is the donor’s travel.

No one likes to be surprised with expenses they have not anticipated or don’t fit in their budget.  In some ways, it is the revised, last schedule for ultrasounds and the retrieval itself that will dictate how and when your donor must travel to your selected facility.  Dates often change at the last minute, and costs for flights or hotels can become astronomical.  Not being able to properly estimate and plan for these expenses can be maddening.

Without professional oversight and planning, donors are often in a position to make additional demands, such as meal allowance, childcare, or companion travel.  At that point, the couple would have to decide whether they can afford these associated costs.  Once the parties have been medically cleared and one or both of the parties is on birth control to regulate cycles, it becomes frustrating and difficult to feel pressured into accepting demands, since everyone is so far along in the process.

However, utilizing the services of a well-run egg donor agency (not one that simply has a desirable donor) will allow you to organize and plan up front, and control travel expenses.  While even an agency cannot control whether medical protocols change, they do help in providing pre-approved rates and understandings in an otherwise frenetic time right before injections begin.

-Meyers & O’Hara, LLP

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