Going the Extra Miles

Annabelle & Garry traveled to the United States from the UK to pursue their dreams of parenthood using the Donor Egg Program.

Annabelle and Garry first pursued fertility treatments when Annabelle was 35 years old.  They tried in vitro fertilization (IVF) multiple times using her own eggs at a UK clinic with no success.  Finally the doctor concluded that her chances of conceiving using her own eggs were very low.  He recommended donor egg.  However, Annabelle and Garry learned from their doctor that since donors are not paid in the UK, there are very few donor eggs available, a long wait list, and little or no choice even when a recipient makes it to the top of the list.  Nor is there much if any flexibility about the timing of the embryo transfer, Annabelle said.  (In fact, she said subsequently she joined a support group in the UK for donor-conceived children and their parents, and learned from others in the group that the donor egg wait time can be as long as two to three years.  Among the group’s members, Annabelle is the only one who went overseas for treatment.) View our Support Groups -->

Her UK doctor has an arrangement with a Spanish hospital and with SGFC, and refers many of his patients to these two places for donor egg treatment.  Annabelle said that since she and her husband are fair skinned, they figured it more likely they would find an egg donor in the USA who resembled them than in Spain, where complexions can be somewhat darker.  In addition, she found that SGFC offered more choice of donors than the Spanish hospital, and more information about each donor as well, which Annabelle said she found reassuring.  The level of support and information at SGFC was superior, she said. Learn about our donors -->

Annabelle said what also appealed to her about SGFC is the Shared Donor Egg and Shared Risk program, neither of which were options at the Spanish hospital.  She said Shared Risk was a particularly big factor in choosing SGFC, as it does more than just lower the final cost of treatment.  With just one payment, Annabelle said she was reassured that she could try again if the first cycle didn’t take.  Once she and Garry decided to spend that money, they no longer had to worry about incremental payments for treatment.  They could set aside that concern.

Since Annabelle used to travel frequently to the US for work, she was not daunted by the idea of crossing the Atlantic for fertility treatments, she said.  She was able to conceive her now 6-month-old son, Adam, with just two trips to Shady Grove.  On their first trip, she met the Shady Grove Fertility Center team that would be working with them.  She learned what would happen, and she and Garry both had tests done.  Shady Grove also obtained some of Garry’s sperm and froze it.  Then she and Garry returned home, where Annabelle underwent some hormone treatments with her local UK clinic, an SGFC partner in London.  These treatments ensured that her uterus is ready for pregnancy.

Once they’d chosen a donor, Shady Grove Fertility Center inseminated the donor’s egg with Garry’s sperm.  Annabelle returned to the DC area for the actual embryo transfer.  The couple was lucky and got pregnant on the very first try, and their son Adam was born November 15, 2008.