10 Factors that Make for a Perfect Match When Sharing Your Eggs
Egg sharing can be a beautiful journey that brings dreams and visions to life. Just like our egg sharers, our wonderful recipients come to us with diverse backgrounds and histories; which is reflected in their preferences for a perfect match. If you desire to share and freeze your eggs, you may be wondering what factors may be considered by a recipient family during the matching process. The matching process can vary in length from days to even years. Here are the top 10 factors that our recipients look out for in a potential match.
1. Location of Egg Sharer and Willingness to Travel
Many of our hopeful parents have a long history of infertility that they have been working through with a trusted physician.
Most of our recipients plan on sticking with the same physician for the duration of their treatment, so a match who is near the physician’s office is often preferred. Although a local egg sharer is the easiest option, proximity isn’t necessary, and some recipients are more than happy to cover the travel expenses to send their perfect match and a companion to their local fertility center for treatment.
2. Educational Background and Career Goals
Although many would assume that more education is better, not all hopeful parents are looking for a lawyer or PhD to share eggs with.
While an educational background may be important to some recipients, most of our intended parents are aware that life is a journey and a work in progress. Tell hopeful parents about all your big ideas and goals in the full application because they want to help you see them come to fruition! Egg sharing is a mutually beneficial gift, and our recipients are gifting you an opportunity to focus on those goals and dreams of yours through egg freezing.
3. Egg Sharing Experience Level
Some recipients may consider experience levels in their perfect match. Repeat egg sharers or those with egg donation or egg freezing experience have undergone giving self-injections, attending monitoring appointments, and the egg retrieval procedure.
In addition to that, if there was a successful pregnancy resulting from that experience, then it is proof that your eggs can achieve a successful pregnancy, which is a big plus for some recipients. No need to worry if you’re a first-timer. Once matched, your genetic consultation, psychological screening and medical approval by the hopeful parents’ fertility physician are all performed to ensure that you are a good candidate for egg sharing.
4. Personality and Maturity Level
Let your personality shine in your application! Completing the application process shows dedication and investment in the process of egg sharing.
A sense of maturity and investment in the process as displayed through your application can establish trust between you and your match. Trust is essential because our recipients want to feel confident that you will be able to follow directions medically and attend your necessary appointments on time.
5. Physical Traits
One of the obvious factors that go into a perfect match is physical attributes.
Despite what some would assume, not every recipient is looking for a 5’10” supermodel. Much of the time, our hopeful parents want nothing more than a healthy baby that resembles their family. Attributes that may be considered are hair type, hair color, eye color, height, facial features, body type, and athletic abilities. Were you a collegiate level gymnast or on your high school swim team? It may help your perfect match find you, so let us know!
6. Religious or Ethnic Background
For some recipients, religion and faith are extremely important.
Sharing religious beliefs can forge a connection or in some extreme cases is a necessary factor to have in the bloodline of their future family. Similarly, ethnic background may be considered important to some hopeful parents. Sharing a similar cultural lineage and being able to carry on the traditions of shared ancestors can be an important string that connects a family with their child.
7. Compatible Anonymity
During the application process, you would have thoroughly discussed the different possibilities surrounding anonymity during your in-person meeting and decided what you feel comfortable with moving forward.
Most matches are semi-anonymous, meaning both parties know small details about each other, like first names and the cities of residence. Are you open to contact in the future? Do you want to know some details about the recipients? Are you open to meeting the recipients before moving forward with the match? Compatibility or flexibility with respect to anonymity is something that must align between both parties for a successful match to take place.
8. Compatible Health History
Health history is an important factor that some hopeful parents value in a match.
Receiving eggs from an egg sharing participant can introduce a unique opportunity to eliminate specific genetic conditions from a family line. For instance, a recipient with a family history of breast cancer may only consider matching with someone who has a clean history of breast cancer in her family. The ultimate goal for every parent is a healthy child, so compatible health history is an important factor that most recipients consider in their choice.
9. Compatible Timetable
Most recipients have an idea of when they want to start their cycle, whether it’s ASAP or if they’re willing to wait for 3 or maybe 6 months.
Your availability can be a factor that is considered in a match (although most recipients will be willing to wait for that perfect match). Think about any blackout dates (i.e travel, holidays, major life events and or milestones, etc.) in which you won’t be available so that you can be matched accordingly.
10. A Connection
Finding a match would be quick and easy if everything was black and white, but most of the time our recipients choose a match that they feel a special connection to.
This could feel like an instinct, intuition, or just ‘knowing’. A connection could also be formed with the realization that you both share similar interests, experiences, or physical attributes. Many recipients describe a connection with their match as someone who they feel they could be friends with, reminds them of a family member, or who would ‘fit in’ with their family.
The perfect fit
An exceptional match is a beautiful thing and comes about perfectly when the desires, values, and circumstances of the egg sharer and recipient family align. After completion of the application process and acceptance as an egg sharing participant, it is important that Fertility United is notified of any circumstance changes so that we can continue to match you accordingly.
If you have questions about a potential match, just ask! Fertility United is here to make sure you go into your match well informed and with confidence. Therefore we are more than happy to facilitate anonymous communication between you and your potential match candidate.