Embryo Adoption
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My husband and I had always wanted children, but did not marry until age 40 (we are the same age). My mother had seven healthy children, the last one at age 40, so I had always assumed I would have no problem conceiving a child. We tried for several years, then had some tests done at my gynecologist’s suggestion. A few problems were corrected, and we tried for another year, using an ovulation predictor kit. Finally, at age 45, we turned to Dr. Ryan for help.
We tried artificial insemination once, without success, and then immediately chose IVF with a donor egg, due to our age. We wanted the healthiest donor we could find, and we luckily found a woman similar to me in ethnic background, appearance, and many interests and traits. At age 46, we were blessed with a beautiful, very healthy full-term baby girl on our first IVF cycle. She is very active and alert, and ahead in most developmental milestones, yet doesn’t sleep as many hours as the average baby, so we have our hands full.
Because I gave up my career to become a stay-at-home mom, we are now stretched financially. Due to our circumstances and age, when our baby was 5 months old we made the difficult decision to not try for more children. Having decided this, we wanted to give some other couple the chance to become parents, and give our apparently very healthy embryos a chance to develop into fetuses, and, hopefully, babies (born to people who want children as much as we do, but may not have the ability to conceive their own or pay donor, agency and donor meds fees). So with the help of Dr. Ryan, we put our 17 embryos up for adoption. –L.F., Belmont, CA
It is our policy to match the extraordinary generosity of some of our patients, like the couple above, with eligible PFC patients who have tried to conceive, but have more or less reached the end of their rope. Everyone’s circumstances are unique. Stay tuned to this column in the next couple of months to find out more about how embryo adoption benefits infertile couples! –Isabelle Ryan, MD
