Egg donor- Can I ?????

[julie_ann_jules]

Hi Everyone!
I have been thinking a lot latly about becomming an egg donor but I have a question. I have PCOS (but no fertility problems-I have three healthy children) and I also have an overactive thyroid. So does this mean that I can't donate eggs?? And if I can would anyone want them knowing that it could be possible for their child to have one of these problems. Also if I do donate can the dr's gender select??? If they selected a boy then the child wouldn't have PCOS and thyroid problems are much less common in males!
Anyway if you have any answers I would LOVE to hear from you.

[nanananny]

Hi I just wanted to say that's a lovely thing for you to be thinking of doing, I don't know about the PCOS but I think gender selection is against the law in Australia.

Someone will probably come along that knows more

[anney]

Hi, In theory you could be an egg donor but it may be difficult for you to go through the medical treatment. women with PCOS tend to vary in the way they respond to fertility drugs. Even from one cycle to the next ie. one time you might not respond and then next time be overstimulated. They will need to monitor you very carefully as you can become very unwell if you overstimulate. Until you start the drugs you just won't know. The other reason I say it will be difficult is that you may do a donor cycle for someone and it be unsuccessful and that is emotionally very draining on both you and the recipient.
Recipients of eggs do like to know the donor's medical background and the clinics will ask but it is unlikely anyone is going to reject you because of PCOS or thyroid issues.
They might do gender selection for gender specific chromosone problem but I don't think they would do it for something like PCOS.
good luck

[hopeful41]

Good on you for wanting to donate. It is such a great thing to give someone the gift of hope for their dream.

I'm in an interesting position to be able to answer your question. I had an overactive thyroid for a number of years and was told not to have children while on the tablets I needed to take and that having children without the drugs could potentially cause problems with their growth due to impacting their pituitary gland. I think it had more to do with the pregnancy than the eggs though. I also thought things like over active thyroid, unless part of a bigger problem, were just random events and not genetic.

I don't know what medication you're taking but it might be worth asking a Dr about it. I did end up having two lots of treatment for mine, one was radioiodine treatment. I was told it was safe but who knows.

Fast forward a few years and I reached my late 30s and I desperately wanted more kids (I already had one when I was in my early 20s) but with no man in sight and time running out I decided to go ahead and try to have another child on my own. Turns out time had run out.

After several IVFs of my own I found I needed an egg donor myself. After quite a search I found a lovely lady who happened to have PCOS. She'd already donated for two other women very successfully and although she didn't produce as many eggs for me as she did for the previous recipient I still had a chance and even managed the joy of a pregnancy before the heartache of miscarriage. Then she donated for someone else and got heaps of eggs but something happened and she can't donate again for a very long time so she told me to go look for another egg donor, which I have been doing.

The short of that is that people with PCOS can donate but it has to be monitored carefully and some women with PCOS have trouble getting sufficient eggs while others get too many and hyperstimulate. But with a good fertility specialist and a certainty that this is what you want to do then I know it can be done, my previous donor is proof of it.

As for gender selection, I don't know, but if it turns out your eggs produce a girl then just knowing it's a possibility for her means she can take the appropriate steps for her own future when the time comes.

If you do decide to go ahead and donate then I hope you find the right recipient(s) for you and that the whole process goes well and is very successful. It's an amazing gift to be able to give someone.