what about embryo adoption
It is cheaper, quicker, easier and OOOOOOHHHHH so fulfilling
I did a donor cycle two years ago - it was a wonderful thing and now I have a healthy, active one year old who's a joy to all of us. The first thing you need to do is find a donor - your clinic might have a pool of donors (ours did) or you will need to consult an egg donor agency. You will probably look at photos, medical/social history & psychiatric history of your donor & will make a decision based on that.
Picking a donor is a big job but once that's done, you'll sign up for this donor. When your turn comes up, your re will synchronize yours and the donor's cycles, start you on injections to suppress your ovaries and start estrogen to build up your lining. Most likely they will do weekly internal u/s's to make sure your lining looks good & check your estrogen levels.
On the day of retrieval, your partner will give a sperm sample & then the eggs retrieved from the donor and your partner's sperm will be joined. Depending on how the embryos do will determine what day your transfer will occur. Also on the day of retrieval, you'll begin some kind of progesterone supplement - either by injection or suppository. On the transfer day, the best embryo(s) will be transferred into your uterus and then the waiting begins. You will continue the progesterone supplements until your pregnancy test. If positive, you will continue the progesterone until usually 12 weeks.
All of this information is based upon my own experience & what I've read from other women. I agonized over whether to do adoption or a donor cycle - we finally decided to go for the donor cycle - the success rate is really good so that helped influence our decision. Both ways are expensive. The above poster mentioned donor embryos - that's where you basically adopt somebody else's leftover embryos, go through a receipient cycle mentioned above & then take a pregnancy test. Usually, frozen cycles are less successful than fresh ones. We also considered that option as well. And the above poster's also right - adopting donor embryos is a lot less expensive.
There are pros/cons in all of these options. If I can answer any other questions, let me know - either through this thread or by pm. I wish you the best of luck and take care - jen
if you do an embryo donor
there is less screening, less paperwork, and fewer unwanted babies created!