This week I have been at the Cochrane Colloquium — an international scientific meeting where networking with other health scientists is invaluable. It is the eighth consecutive year that I attended, each time in a different country. I find that these conversations provide me with new tools that I can share with my patients.
On the last day of the four-day conference, I participated in a workshop where we were asked to tell a story. I decided to take a step ahead and told a story drawn from my years of practice. It is not a real one, but it could be. I didn’t make it up; I used the experience that I gathered in the last 12 years, putting together some of the stories that I have lived with my patients.
A story about infertility and egg donation
This one is about egg donation. It is about a woman named Marian who had the dream of getting married and having children. However, she realized they needed to consult a specialist in reproductive medicine and, eventually, she might need to use donor eggs. Egg donation was not an easy choice for her.
I always enjoy talking about egg donation. I started organizing the egg donor program in our clinic in 2005, and I am proud of the hundreds of patients who got pregnant here. I know that using donor eggs is not an easy decision. I know that the decision of not using your own DNA can be difficult. But I also know that egg donation gives a great opportunity to some women who cannot use their own eggs. And the satisfaction, when the baby arrives, is wonderful.
“I know that the decision of not using your own DNA can be difficult. But egg donation gives a great opportunity — and the satisfaction when the baby arrives is wonderful.”
