Dusty and Lulu,
excuse me butting in, but I thought I would answer Lulu's question regarding the adverts. As with heaps of things, guidelines vary from state to state re both egg and sperm donation.
Victoria is the only state in which you need to get the Health Minister's approval to advertise for an egg donor. So in Melbourne's child most adverts will have that blurb about " has been approved by minister of health" but anyone living in another state doesn't need to do that. On the plus side for us Victorians though, some states have a cooling off period where you have your counselling and then have to wait 3 or 6 months to actually cycle. i think I heard of someone in WA, who did the donation but the embryos had to be frozen for a cooling off period of 3 to 6 months.
Hoody, that is strange about your sister being told she was too old. 32 is definitely not too old. when I started this process about 3 years ago the ages were generally 21 to 35 but in the past few years clinics seem to have lifted the age to 37 or 38. Certainly the FS does sometimes have a say, but dissing a donor for being 32 would not be usual.
Great to see so many people interested in this topic. Might see you all over in the egg donor forum that Dusty mentioned. It is a really interesting place where you can learn more than you ever wanted to know about fertility (or lack thereof!)
. And it is very supportive and friendly. There is an egg donation thread on belly belly under the assisted conception area where a few of us have put some details re the ins and outs of the social and medical aspects to egg donation, but I can't find it right now. I will go have another look.
MrsMac, yes the upper age limit is there because women's fertility does decline markedly after 37 or 38 and they don't want to put someone through the donation experience with a reduced chance of success. (some people might say, it does not look good for the clinic's stats.) For all prospective donors they do test for indications of fertility (although there is no definitive test) and I have heard of 39 year old donors being accepted.
Having said that even being young there is no guarantee of people being able to donate. On the egg donation site there have been a few donors who had no problems having their own children but when they donated, their ovaries did not respond to the drugs and they could not end up donating. the female body really is quite amazing!