How To Prepare Emotionally For An Egg Donation
As an Intended Parent on an Egg Donation journey, there may be many emotions flying around in your head. Preparing and adjusting to the Egg Donation process can be mentally and emotionally taxing as well as physically draining. You may have tried several other methods of getting pregnant without success and the excitement, as well as fears that come with being a Donor Recipient, can take a toll on your emotional health. For this reason, you need a thorough and holistic readiness process if you are to have an incident-free IVF process.
Here are just a few ways to go about it.
Prepare as a team with a strong support system
Coming to terms with the inability to conceive naturally can be a challenging moment for all types of Intended Parents, especially infertile couples. The challenge grows direr when discussing the issue of Egg Donation.
With all Intended Parents using an Egg Donor, you need a strong support system. If you are a couple, both partners need to support one another and be open and transparent with one another’s feelings. All people take different amount of time to come to terms with this important life-changing decision to use an Egg Donor. Seek support from a professional experienced in addressing infertility concerns (whether it is a psychologist, social worker or a counsellor) to help you not only come to terms with your decision to use an Egg Donor, but to help you embrace this beautiful alternative path to your dream of completing your family dreams.
In many cases, while the woman may be ready to go on with the process, posing the question to the husband is as agonizing as any of the answers he can give.
Many men find themselves in a tight spot mainly because if he ever says ‘no,’ he might be crippling his wife’s dreams of raising own children and a ‘yes’ may be interpreted to mean he doesn’t care, especially if it is perceived to come too soon.
Experts in the field of Egg Donation, and Egg Donor Consultancies like Proud Fertility advises that such sensitive talks be mediated by professional counsellors.
Keep the decisions private, but still embrace your route of using an Egg Donor
The reason most people keep their Egg Donation decisions secret is because of its sensitiveness and the emotions it evokes every time someone brings it up. The last thing you need is someone trying to settle a score with you by reminding you of your genetic faults. You might also note that discussing the Egg Donation subject with family members and friends is usually interpreted as involving them in the decision-making which makes it even harder. Different opinions add weight to the already huge decision thus creating confusion and raising the emotional bar even higher.
It is important to keep in mind that even though you may choose to keep your decisions private, Proud Fertility believes that all Intended Parents should be grateful and proud of using an Egg Donor. If it were not for women who come forward to give this gift, many family dreams would not be fulfilled.
Keeping physically and medically fit
Most Fertility Clinics will warn that IVF isn’t the surest method of getting pregnant and that not all women conceive with their first or even several successive implants. And such thoughts have the ability to affect you emotionally and in the process injure your preparedness, especially if you have had unsuccessful trials in the past. However, the key lies in easing up, eating healthy and following doctor’s advice as well as coming to terms with any of the distressing thoughts and anxieties about the outcome. This way you can recover after the process regardless of the outcome.
Disclosing it to the children
Egg donation and IVF isn’t like a sick feeling that you pick and forget with time. The journey of The child you bear always serves as a reminder of the entire process. Just like in adoption cases, egg donation is no easy journey, but every Donor Recipient is advised that once the children can understand the reproduction process, they be enlightened on their unique conception process. Without this education, the fertility field will not advance with people who look to these clinical processes with hope and embracement of such possibilities. Instead, infertility addressed through IVF clinical procedures become something that Intended Parents look to with skepticism and shame.
What do we take away from this?
The most important part of overcoming any challenge is preparing how to handle it in advance and Egg Donation process is no different. Such involves discussing the process with your spouse (or your other strong supports if you are pursuing this journey as a single Intended Parent), as well as seeking professional advice from Egg Donor Advisors or Consultants or Fertility Clinics regarding the preparation process. Always surround yourself with people who are positive and sensitive to your challenges.