A Friend for a Season - Third Party Fertility with Gail Sexton Anderson and Donor Concierge
Curious about how to find an egg donor, sperm donor or surrogate? Gail Sexton Anderson, the visionary behind Donor Concierge, addresses all of these questions and provides insights about how the process operates and who covers expenses.
Donor Concierge assists clients requiring third party fertility (aka donor or surrogacy support) in their family building journey. Choosing someone outside your family to enable your family to grow can be really complicated and emotional and together we explore all these nuances. Gail and her team are dedicated to supporting clients through every step. If using a donor or a surrogate is on your mind, this episode is not to be missed—it's brimming with vital information.
IN THIS EPISODE:
[2:51] Gail explains what services the Donor Concierge provides and defines language used in the field
[6:36] Gail shares the details of how Donor Concierges operates, how they assist clients navigating through the donor field and what clients are looking for in their search
[18:06] There are three types of searches: egg donor, sperm donor and surrogacy search. What kinds of information are shared, and what are good reasons for openness in the process rather than anonymity
[26:59] Where are surrogates found, and what are the trends
[35:44] What is the future of the way fertility and third-party fertility are supported, and are there legal issues
[42:37] When should an intended parent seek the Donor Concierge
[46:15] Gail shares what family means to her
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Finding the correct egg or sperm donor cannot be overstated. It does make a difference because an egg is not just an egg, and sperm is not just sperm. Every egg carries genetic information that forms who your child will be one day.
Multiple things can and do go wrong in the process of building a family through egg and sperm donation and surrogacy. Having a firm like Donor Concierge on your side is beneficial because they walk through those difficulties with you.
The process of egg and sperm donation or having a surrogate is not just a means to an end. It is your child’s story; it is your family's story. Open communication is essential, and anonymity should be a thing of the past. There is too much information lost when anonymity is a factor.
RESOURCE LINKS:
BIOGRAPHY:
Gail Sexton Anderson has dedicated her career to helping intended parents from all walks of life build families. She founded Donor Concierge as a compassionate approach to helping intended parents sort through the gauntlet of egg donor, sperm donor and surrogacy options. Gail is a Harvard-trained counselor with 25 years of experience helping intended parents have the baby they always dreamed of.
After graduate school, Gail joined a research group in the Psychology Department at Yale University. Later, she joined a group of researchers in pediatric neurology at Yale New Haven Hospital doing developmental testing with children born prematurely of very low birth weight. Gail is also a graduate of Alice Domar’s Mind Body Fertility Program through Boston IVF and has served on a Radcliffe panel with other fertility experts. In her career in the fertility industry, Gail has been the Executive Director of one of the leading surrogacy agencies and helped start two different egg donor agencies. Gail is an empathic listener who brings a calming influence to what can often be an emotionally stressful process.
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