Archive for the ‘Staff Corner’ Category
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
You’ve been searching for weeks for your ideal egg donor candidate, taking into consideration physical characteristics, fertility history, family health and educational achievements. You’ve ranked your favorites, narrowed them down, slept on it and now that you’ve found your perfect match and are ready to book her, you can breathe a big sigh of relief and know that your search is finally behind you.
Right?
 Not quite. Despite the best of intentions, something will go wrong in 25%-30% of all egg donor cycles and most, if not all of these issues cannot be predicted in advance. Beverly Hills Egg Donation has an extensive in-house screening process and a team of donor reps who work diligently to ensure that our selection of donors is the strongest that it can be, but there is always the potential for surprises once a cycle gets underway. As is the nature of working with a young woman in her early to mid- twenties, your donor will be having medical testing for a number of things that, if not for this donation, she likely would never have been tested for at her age. There are also occasionally unforeseen issues that come up in the psychological testing, genetic counseling, or during the legal process. In fact, this is why we utilize these professionals in the first place – to protect you and ensure that you have the best chance possible at a successful outcome once the medication phase of the cycle begins. While our personal screening process is an initial review, we employ others to help uncover any health/genetic problems that may otherwise have gone undetected and confirm that your donor is psychologically prepared to donate.
This is why, no matter how perfect your donor may seem, we always recommend that you select a backup option before going forward with your cycle. We have many repeat donors available (which lessens the possibility that something unexpected will come up to deter or derail your cycle), but even then if something goes wrong and you have a backup choice, our cycle coordinator will be able to help you move seamlessly onto that donor without using any momentum. There is also no additional agency fee to switch donors; your full fee will be applied to the subsequent cycle.
Ideally, your cycle will be completed smoothly and without a hitch. However, one of the best things that you can do to make your experience with egg donation as successful as possible is to remain flexible and be prepared for the unexpected – which includes having a backup donor in mind before you book your perfect match.
Tags: Beverly Hills Egg Donation, BHED, egg donation, egg donation agencies, egg donation process, egg donor, egg donor agency, egg donor cost, egg donor cycle, how to choose an egg donor, IVF, southern california egg donation agency, southern california egg donor, Southern California egg donor agency
Posted in Staff Corner | No Comments »
Monday, February 15th, 2010
Check out our freshly updated “Who We Are” page to meet the newest staff members to join the BHED team. Liz Bader-Natal, Bay Area Coordinator, provides support to Donors and Intended Parents throughout the duration of the cycle. Sally Blackford manages our online server and has lent a tremendous hand in keeping day-to-day administrative work running smoothly. And Diana Ashley, a previous donor herself, works in Donor Outreach to keep each of our donor’s profiles accurate and up-to-date.
With the increases that we’ve seen in every area – from donor applicants to interview, to cycles to manage and medical records to request (and fax, and file, and update…), these ladies have jumped in with both feet and done a stellar job helping our program grow with grace.
Tags: Beverly Hills Egg Donation, BHED, egg donation, egg donation agencies, egg donor, egg donor agency, egg donor cycle, egg donor database, egg donors, southern california egg donor, Southern California egg donor agency
Posted in Staff Corner | No Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
 For our applicants who live outside of the Los Angeles area, we conduct our interviews via webcam, which gives us the exceptional ability to say that we’ve actually met each one of the egg donors on our database! I’ve worked with other agencies in the past and I can’t say that the same is true for those organizations. This gives us the confirmation that the person on the other end really is who they say they are, and gives us a much better feel for the donor’s personality and character. I really enjoy being able to communicate with a donor in this way. Some donors who have children of their own will even bring their child(ren) to the camera for a few minutes. I also love seeing a donor who takes copious notes during our interview – when I can see her writing, it’s confirmation to me that she wants to make sure she knows what is required of her.
More and more of our applicants now have their own cameras that they are able to use for the interview, and for donors who don’t we will send one out via UPS. From a logistics standpoint, this system actually runs surprisingly smoothly. The only challenge I’ve experienced when working with webcams is that some donors who have never used a webcam before might have some trouble setting it up, but that is usually sorted out quickly and we can start the interview. When the interview is over the donor just sends the camera back to us to be used by another candidate. The process of sending the camera back is very simple as well – we provide them with a return label so there is no expense to the donor. It makes it easy for everyone!
-Susan Rai, Beverly Hills Egg Donation
Tags: Beverly Hills Egg Donation, BHED, egg donation agency, egg donor, egg donor database, egg donors, southern california egg donation agency, southern california egg donor
Posted in Staff Corner | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Although we’re thrilled about the start of a New Year, we have to admit that we’re still pretty smitten with 2009… 
This last year was a busy, happy and successful one here at Beverly Hills Egg Donation. In 2009 the total number of pregnancies that we’ve been a part of increased by 44%. Even BETTER – of our clients who completed cycles with us last year, 82% got pregnant. Now there’s a reason to celebrate! We also have more terrific donor candidates than ever before, with new ones being added to our database each week, and are committed to continuing our reputation as one of the most well-respected egg donor agencies in the industry. (We’re also committed to posting more blog entries in 2010 to share the invaluable resources and experiences we’ve come across within the donation community – a New Year’s resolution from our admin team!)
We’re looking forward to an even better year ahead and wish you all the best in your journey with egg donation, whether it be as a donor, intended parent or colleague.
Happy New Year!
Posted in Staff Corner | No Comments »
Monday, September 28th, 2009
If you’re registered as an egg donor, getting a new tattoo becomes a decision that can have a much bigger affect than you’d ever anticipated. For a potential recipient who has spent weeks pouring over donor profiles (and sometimes thousands of dollars on previous failed IVF cycles), only to fall in love with their perfect match, news that their ideal donor has gotten a tattoo from an unlicensed facility can be devastating.
 All of this can be avoided if you keep in mind that potential donors cannot donate their eggs if they’ve had a tattoo or body piercing within the past six months to a year – typically six months for a piercing and one year for a tattoo. The only exception to this rule is if you can provide written and signed proof that your tattoo or piercing was administered at a state-regulated facility, using a sterile technique. Even then, however, some doctors will still require that donors wait eight weeks before donating – one clinic still requires donors to wait the full 12 months! To make things even more complicated, the official regulations vary from state to state, and only 32 states even have such regulations. If you choose to have your tattoo or piercing administered in a state that does not enforce regulations, you can be sure that you’ll be in for an extremely long wait before you’re finally able to donate.
If you’re serious about wanting to donate and help a family in need, Beverly Hills Egg Donation recommends that you hold off on any plans for a new tattoo or piercing until after you’ve completed your donation cycle(s).
Tags: Beverly Hills Egg Donation, BHED, egg donation, egg donation and tattoos, egg donor, egg donor cycle
Posted in Staff Corner | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
 One of the questions Intended Parents ask often is “Can you recommend a good doctor?”. Other variations of that question are “Should I stay with my current doctor?”, “Should I move to a doctor closer to where the egg donor lives?”, and sometimes “I’m not sure if I should move doctors or not – what do you think?”.
Here are the answers to those questions, in my opinion…
1) “Can you recommend a good doctor?” Yes, we can provide recommendations to you.
We have been fortunate enough to work with many of the top Reproductive Endocrinologists (”fertility doctors”) in the country, and from those experiences (and client feedback) we have a good sense of who most of the better doctors are. We base our recommendations on a number of factors, including:
- General reputation and feedback from past patients
- Quality and professionalism of the office staff (front office, nursing, etc.)
- General compliance with current “industry standards”, including information such as number of embryos typically implanted, compliance with common testing, administration of medication, etc. (Note that since we are not physicians, we cannot comment, and would not deign to comment, on any particular doctor’s medical protocol. However, when we see a lower success rate and highly unusual protocol used, we get concerned…)
- General office “vibe” (for example, many clinics with in-house programs are very negative towards working with egg donor agencies.)
- Specific success rates (sometimes per SART, sometimes per our own information or in-house statistics.)
Note that we do not limit our work to any particular group or clinic, but as we gather first-hand information, we will use it to help our clients make the best choice for them.
2) “Should I stay with my current doctor?” “Should I move to a doctor closer to where the donor lives?” That all depends…
I believe that the most important criteria in choosing or keeping your physician include:
- Your comfort level with and trust in your doctor. If you love your doctor and totally trust him or her, as long as they are supportive of using an egg donor from an agency, definitely keep that doctor. I think that if you are calm during the process, and are willing to do what your doctor says because you trust in that doctor, you are more likely to have a successful cycle. This is only said from anecdotal evidence and other’s opinions, but being in a good place psychologically as you’re on buckets of hormones (and going through a somewhat surreal process) can’t help but benefit you. Does statistical research confirm that? I don’t know – but it sure seems logical.
- If finances are an issue (as they generally are) and you choose an egg donor from another city, you might want to consider moving to a doctor in that city. However, if you love your current doctor, the difference in dollars is probably irrelevant – certainly in the long term. If you do choose to use or keep a doctor in a city far from where the donor lives, make sure that you’re aware of the outside monitoring costs as early in the process as possible. (The finance person at the doctor’s office, along with our cycle coordinator, can help you with that.) The less surprises that happen in this process, the better.
All of BHED’s clients are assigned a Cycle Coordinator – a senior member of our staff who follows your case through from the time you choose your doctor until retrieval (and often, beyond.) The Cycle Coordinator will be in regular contact with your doctor’s office from the time you sign your contract with us, and she will alert you if we have any unexpected challenges with the doctor’s office. Most of the time things work out just fine.
Note that we stay with you until you become pregnant or you decide to discontinue trying. Your choice of doctor is certainly an important part of this process, and is one of the keys to the success of your pursuit to begin or build your family.
We look forward to helping you realize your dream through egg donation!
-Lisa Greer, BHED Managing Partner
Tags: Beverly Hills Egg Donation, fertility doctor, fertility doctors, Lisa Greer, Reproductive Endocrinologists
Posted in Staff Corner | No Comments »
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Once you’ve reached the end of the application process and had a successful interview with a member of our donor team, our staff will add your profile to our database of donors for recipients to peruse.
Congratulations, you’re now an active donor with BHED (Beverly Hills Egg Donation)!
There can be quite a lot to do leading up to this point – gathering pictures and transcripts, doing your own research on the donation process, putting together information on your family’s medical history, and scheduling your interview – that it may seem like the flurry of activity tapers off slightly after you’ve finally been made active. One of the questions we get a lot is, “how long will it take for me to be matched?” To tell the truth, there’s no way of knowing. Some egg donors are matched within a matter of days, and for others it takes longer – sometimes even weeks or months. It’s really all a matter of the right recipient coming across your profile at the right time, and for some donors, that doesn’t happen right away.
The most important thing to do during this time is to make sure to keep your profile accurate and up-to-date. Review your profile occasionally and contact us with any changes in contact info, updates/successes in school or work, or new information regarding your medical history. Also, we always love to have new pictures to add to your profile so feel free to keep them coming! We store the extras on our server in case a potential recipient requests to see them.
Another big thing to keep in mind while you’re waiting to be matched is to make sure you’re easy to get in touch with. Sometimes a recipient has a couple of donors they’re interested in, and wants to make a decision quickly, so make sure to respond to any phone calls or emails that you get from us as promptly as possible. You’ll also receive a phone call from our team every three months to confirm your availability.
Finally, a great thing to do after you’ve been activated is come to one of our photo shoots! We hold these shoots every 4-6 weeks in West LA. It’s a wonderful way to get beautiful, professional photos to enhance your profile and it’s totally free to you. It takes just 15 minutes of your time, and you get a high-resolution jpeg of your favorite shot to keep.
Of course, you can feel free to contact us at any time with questions or to see if there’s been interest in your profile.
We look forward to seeing you matched!
Tags: egg donation, egg donation process, egg donor, egg donors
Posted in Staff Corner | No Comments »
Friday, March 20th, 2009
Often, egg donors inquire about egg donation and expect that they will be donating just one of their eggs to an infertile couple. It just doesn’t work that way. When an egg donor is matched with a recipient, they are contracted to donate the eggs that they produce in a particular menstrual cycle. During that cycle, the physician that they are seeing intentionally increases the number of eggs that are produced. While a “normal” woman might release one or two eggs a month, those numbers would be cause to cancel an egg donor cycle prior to the retrieval.
The number of eggs produced and donated in an egg donor cycle can range from about 8 to as many as 40 (although that is very, very rare). The average cycle results in a retrieval of between 15 and 20 eggs. The eggs are fertilized after retrieval, and often not all of them will successfully fertilize and develop. About 12 to 14 healthy embryos generally result from 20 eggs. Some of these embryos (possibly 2) will be transferred to the recipient or a gestational carrier, and the remainder frozen for future use.
We always encourage any questions a prospective donor might have. Please refer to our main site for more information about becoming a donor and feel free to contact us for more information.
-Ellie Klein, BHED Cycle Coordinator
Tags: egg donation, egg donor, number of eggs
Posted in Staff Corner | No Comments »
Saturday, March 14th, 2009
So many BHED (Beverly Hills Egg Donation) donors are accomplished, well-educated young women, that we thought it might be valuable to give you some highlights now and again. Our list of dedicated egg donors includes women who speak three and four languages, college graduates with 4.0 GPAs, and women working on their Master’s Degrees and even PhDs.
Among our linguists, we can count Alexa #3127 who speaks Czech, Ticiana #2995 who is a native Portuguese speaker, Thomasina #4798 who learned Italian in college and is now fluent, and Natalia #870 who speaks both Russian and Chuvash. Asha #4746 speaks four languages – English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.
Our college graduates boast degrees in a wide variety of disciplines. For example, Lynn #4857 has a degree in Architecture, while Ashley #4593 graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. in Theology. Jeni #3093 completed her B.S. in Economics at UCLA, Lisa #3986 has a degree in Zoology, and Lynnea #4083 is pursuing her degree in Biopsychology.
We have quite a few donors who have completed or are enrolled in Master’s programs, including Terri #4759, Jennifer #4389, Hannon #4506, and Michelle #4577.
In blogs to come, we’ll highlight state-and-nationally recognized athletes, dedicated volunteers (including several donors who have started their own non-profits), state beauty pageant winners, professional models and much more! We continue to be impressed with the outstanding and altruistic young women that are part of our donor program.
-Alexa Abrams, BHED Director of Donor Recruitment
Tags: Beverly Hills Egg Donation, egg donation agencies, egg donation agency, egg donor, egg donor database, egg donors
Posted in Staff Corner | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
When you finally make your decision and choose an egg donor it is totally natural to want to get started right away. Many recipients are anxious to find out what they can do to move the cycle along. Unfortunately, when a match is made, often it is the donor who has the most to do. All donors will meet with your doctor, have bloodwork done, and new donors will have their psychological and genetic counselor interviews.
For intended parents–there is mostly just waiting. One thing that intended parents can do right away is contact their attorney and let them know that they are in cycle with a new egg donor, or research and retain an attorney if they don’t have one. Choosing an attorney to draft your agreement is very important. You want to work with someone who specializes in reproductive law. Your attorney will be drafting the contract between you and your donor and for your protection you want that to be iron clad. It is well worth your money to work with an attorney who does all of their work in reproductive law.
Speaking of cost–how much will it cost? The average price for a contract is between $750.00 and $1000.00. Some attorneys will offer re-drafting options as well. Once retained, your attorney will write the contact and review it with you. this can all be done as they cycle is beginning. After your donor’s first visit to the doctor the contract (with your approval) will be sent to your donor’s attorney who will review it with your donor, clarify any questions that she has, and request any changes on her behalf.
Once everyone is happy, the contract is signed and you’re ready to go. Ideally all of the timing will work out perfectly and the contract will be done shortly before your donor starts medication. BHED (Beverly Hills Egg Donation) has a great list of reproductive lawyers available upon request.
-Ellie Klein, BHED Cycle Coordiator
Tags: Beverly Hills Egg Donation, egg donor, egg donor cost
Posted in Staff Corner | No Comments »
|
|
|
|
