In this week’s video I describe why the surrogacy bill did not pass last year and suggest strategies for its success in 2020.
Read More
Will Surrogacy Become Legal in NY (Finally) in 2020?
Posted On January 7th, 2020
Do I Need to Be Genetically Matched with My Egg Donor?
Posted On December 17th, 2019
In this video I explain that a donor is either eligible to donate or not; it is very rare for a donor and her recipient to be a carrier for the same genetic condition. Blood type does not present a conflict either.
Read More
My Journey From Infertility To Motherhood by Laura Watson
Posted On November 14th, 2019
Former NAFG client Laura Watson writes about her experience using an egg donor in this article in https://livingthesecondact.com.
My Journey From Infertility To Motherhood
Read MoreHow Does an Out-of-Town Donation Work?
Posted On November 7th, 2019
You can donate outside your hometown: the travel is all expenses paid in advance. I describe the requirements in detail in this week’s video.
Read More
What are the Hidden Costs for a Surrogacy?
Posted On October 23rd, 2019
Some agencies advertise very low fees: they are probably not including all the costs that surrogacy entails.
Read More
How Long Does Surrogacy Take?
Posted On October 16th, 2019
Good surrogates are hard to find! They need to be thoroughly vetted before they are matched with intended parents. This first step takes an average of three months, then the whole process takes about a year (to get to the baby’s birth). Kathy Benardo from the Northeast Assisted Fertility Group explains the steps.
Read More
How Much Does it Cost to Use Donor Eggs?
Posted On October 7th, 2019
There is a base cost of about 15K for an IVF cycle but beyond that, there is a range of costs for donor eggs depending on which option you choose. Frozen eggs are generally cheaper than fresh but the selection is limited.
Read More
Is Freezing Your Eggs Worth it?
Posted On October 1st, 2019
Egg freezing for fertility preservation is aggressively marketed to young women, but is it worth the cost? I discuss the statistics in this week’s video.
Read More
Couple sues fertility clinic after sperm mix-up
Posted On September 13th, 2019
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2019/09/12/nj-couple-fertility-clinic-lawsuit-orig-vstop-bdk.cnn/video/playlists/top-news-videos/
I used to reassure worried intended parents that gamete mix-ups and losses were exceedingly rare and not something to be stressed over [there are so many more common disruptions with assisted reproduction cases to be more legitimately on guard about]. But we have seen, much to my and many other people’s dismay and shock, more than just one isolated instance recently of an IVF lab making a critical mistake in labeling and/or transfer of eggs/sperm/embryos, along with several large-scale cases of embryos being destroyed due to technological failure. These devastating situations are deserving of further scrutiny and evaluation of safeguards and protocols to determine what measures need to be implemented in order to eradicate them from happening.
Interesting to note that racial disparity is often the cause for suspicion with intended parents in a sperm, egg or embryo mix-up case. I am concerned about Caucasian gametes which may be inadvertently substituted for other Caucasian gametes, with less of a visual indicator as a result. Lab policies and redundancies are strict and careful across the board – these catastrophic results should just not be happening with this level of frequency.
Read More
What are the Risks and Complications with Egg Donation?
Posted On September 10th, 2019
Don’t be scared by crazy internet stories! Egg donation is safe if done properly: there are tens of thousands of these types of procedures (not only for egg donors but for women who do IVF to have children using their own eggs) done in the US every year. Here i explain the most common complication, called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which has been less common as protocols have evolved.
Read More