Tuesday, 1 April 2008

Things I Now Know

  • I could have requested mileage Expenses + £250 for a full donor cycle. I will not break even on the cost of donation.
  • There are 12 visits for a full donor cycle, Initial Visit / 10 Donations / Final Blood Test

  • My blood group, is an odd one - I may get one of those stainless steel bracelets made up

  • STD's, I don't have any

  • General Health, Genetics, everything is clear

  • Going without sex is frustrating

  • Handing over the donation to the embryologist can be a bit embarrassing the first few times

  • I am glad I was accepted as as donor and glad I am doing this :-)

4 comments:

Billy said...

Weird. You only donate 10 times? As far as I know it takes on average about 6 attempt for a woman to conceive, so I would expect that one donates much more.
Anyway 10 times is great, and I'm sure you made somebody happy!

Seed Monkey said...

To be honest Billy, I am not really sure how this works.

I may be wrong (and no doubt someone will be along shortly to correct me) but the private clinics here may favour IVF to raise the chances of fertilisation (and maximise their profits) and optimise the use of sperm.

Billy said...

Ah, that might be. I'm not from the UK and don't know how things work there.. (here IVF is sponsered mostly by the health services [by law until a woman is 45 years old], so they are not quick to refer women to IVF..)

Mark Lyndon said...

Each donation is split into anywhere from 4-10 vials or straws. Since this is then inserted directly into the uterus, or used for IVF, the results are slightly better too. I think ten donations would normally be more than enough to result in about ten children, though I'm surprised they didn't want a few more to be on the safe side.

If your donations are used at an NHS clinic, IVF will be a last resort, since it's so expensive.