I wrote to the clinic earlier in the year to advise that I am considering a vasectomy once our third child has been delivered, and to ask whether they could contact my existing recipients to enquire whether they would like a 'matching' sibling for their child.
The result from the Clinic was a positive, and I have now started my second, and final donation cycle.
Now what I do need to make very clear is how well I am being looked after by the clinic.
Emails are responded to within a day, phone calls are returned within a couple of hours. This is welcome improvement from my earlier experience where it would take weeks to get any response. I am not sure what trigger this change, but it's reduced the stress factor immensely.
So at my first visit this year, I had a blood test, a urine test, and then provided my sample.
I spoke with the nurse to ask that she takes the bloods carefully, as you may recall that my Doctor's surgery botched a blood test last year, and the botched proble is still causing me pain. I can report that the bloods were taken very carefully and there was no additional nerve damage done.
Then there were was some confusion from the Clinic on the remuneration that I would be due. I contacted the HFEA who confirmed that the remuneration for a cycle would be a maximum £250 for loss of earnings plus 'reasonable' expenses as defined on the HFEA website. I have forwarded this information to the Clinic so they can update their procedures.
I will still lose money due to donating this second time, but the additional few pounds takes the sting out of the tail.
Once this cycle is complete, I will provide a final blood test 180 days after the last sample, and then, apart from updates from the clinic on live births, I am done.
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3 comments:
Good for you! Why didn't they take more donations in the first place though? I would have assumed they'd take more than enough for you not to have to go back. As well as the extra donations, you also have to have another set of tests six months after the last donation.
Hi Mark,
I did a course of 10 donations in the first instance, I believe this is kind of standard across clinics?
I guess because I offered to donate a second time, and actively advised that they'd need to get any further donations prior to my vasectomy then perhaps this is an 'insurance' policy for them. The number of donations that I'll complete this cycle will be a fraction of what was done on the original cycle.
Unfortunately ten or so minutes of my appointment this month was spent 'actively discussing' with one of the manager's the remuneration for the second set of donations. The clinic's interpretation of what is allowed was substantially less than what the HFEA has mandated. So I didn't get to ask if they'd used all my first set of donations.
Hopefully will manage to get some better questions in on my next visit.
I think that my wife and I must hold a record for a monogomous low risk couple for taking HIV tests, she's had three so far due to pregnancy's, and I'll have four completed as you mention, six months after my last donation. It was only a few years ago that having a HIV test carried with it a stigma. How times change.
Mark,
During my last visit I confirmed that about a third of my original donations are still 'in the bank'. So this second donation cycle is to make up the difference to allow for further siblings to be conceived.
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