Eggs Wanted

Newcastle Herald

Saturday July 23, 2005

By ALICE KELLY Health Reporter

HUNTER IVF is advertising for egg donors on couples' behalf for the first time and another fertility clinic says the trend to delay childbirth is forcing Hunter women to seek strangers' eggs.

There is a growing demand for suitable eggs as the number of couples wanting in vitro fertilisation rises and women are putting off childbirth because of career, lifestyle or money.

Sydney IVF Newcastle clinic manager Penny O'Donnell said many women who needed donated eggs to conceive were approaching 40 and often their friends and siblings were over 35.

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Rising demand for egg donors

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The donor age limit is often considered to be 35.

She said others were worried about effects on close relationships or that the donor would be "looking over the fence" at how they raised the child.

Hunter IVF donor co-ordinator Cathy Blanks said the response had been "amazing" to advertisements placed in The Herald and The Post for three couples in recent weeks.

It is illegal to pay for eggs, yet eight women responded to the first ad.

"There are so many generous people out there," Ms Blanks said.

Hunter IVF medical director Steve Raymond, who is a gynaecologist, said some couples did not have suitable donors among family and friends, and this isolation, not rising maternal age, was more often behind couples' decision to advertise.

"As the community accepts it, those isolated people who just walked away before are now exploring [other] ways," he said.

Advertising on couples' behalf would ease the strain because the clinic would find and screen donors.

Dr Raymond said almost all the clinic's couples sought eggs from family and friends, but Ms O'Connell said about 75 per cent of Sydney IVF Newcastle clients now advertised.

Dr Raymond estimated about 5 per cent of IVF babies were from donor eggs. About one in 35 Australian babies are IVF conceived, a rate rising 5 to 8 per cent annually.

Finding an anonymous local donor has long been difficult.

Anonymous egg donation could soon be illegal under draft NSW legislation.

HOW GIVING WORKS

1 You will be tested for diseases such as HIV, hepatitis and cystic fibrosis.

2 A hormone is taken daily to suppress your cycle.

3 Daily injections overstimulate the ovaries.

4 A blood test and a scan check the ovaries. When ready a "trigger" injection starts ovulation maturation.

5 Eggs are collected under a sedation anaesthetic.