How to Protect Your Baby Eggs

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Trusted partner or friend
Trusted physician

Step 1

Before you even consider how you are going to protect your baby eggs, you need to review and fully understand several issues including egg and sperm donors (both known and anonymous). IVF, like pregnancy, requires mature and comprehensive thinking about how the impact of parenting will affect life and career considerations, and your relationship. This may mean establishing a secure and mutually agreed upon legal document that would outline what to do with embryo(s) that do not get implanted for various reasons that may include medical, social and relationship issues.

As unappealing as this may seem, it may be helpful to think about this delicate issue in the same way a couple enters into a prenuptial agreement. In a prenuptial agreement both parties should be hopeful that it will never be needed, but are also mature enough to understand that some legal protection is wise if that hope does not pan out over time.

While there has been some considerable public attention regarding embryo custody, national standards or regulations have not been established. In fact, this heated debate rages on and brings together many other debates and issues, including the issue that's on most everyone's mind: healthcare reform.

Practically speaking, IVF embryos are still in the "Wild Wild West" of regulation and science. Little is clear, and the options are tremendous and variable depending on your geographical location, religious beliefs and state/federal laws, to cite just a few elements. An all-too-familiar example of the complexity of this debate is when a once-happy couple separates or divorces and their embryos get caught in the crosshairs of a relationship dissolving. One party may want to attempt to bring the embryo to term while the other may not.

A lack of state and federal regulations raises the questions: Will a woman be “allowed” to essentially act as surrogate using her former partner’s sperm and bring the embryo to term without the partner’s consent or desire? And conversely, can a woman be "required" to continue a pregnancy (as a defacto surrogate) that she no longer consents to or desires?
Step 2

If you are a couple entering into a relationship, you need to reasonably explore on many levels the issues of parenting and raising a family, which can bring you to explore one of the most complex legal, ethical, social and religious questions in any relationship: Who "owns" the embryo?" Some medical and legal experts would add an another to this debate: Can an embryo be "owned" by anyone?"
Step 3

Undergo preconception counseling, education and support when exploring IVF pregnancies. (Many believe that preconception counseling could benefit any couple regardless of how the family will be structured biologically or socially.) Although there aren't technically official guidelines and standards for preconception counseling, an interesting study published in the "Journal of Family Practice" reports that researchers explored the practice and beliefs of primary medical clinicians regarding preconception care. The clinicians that responded mirrored the general confusion of preconception counseling held by society in general. While many agreed that preconception counseling was indeed needed, few clinicians actually performed the counseling, and did not see it a part of their clinical role due to lack of their education and agreed-upon guidelines. In reviewing several studies for this article, the certified nurse midwife was seen as the clinician with the professional background, education and capacity best suited for preconception counseling.
Step 4

Make sure that the clinic or institution providing infertility services is in compliance with the constantly evolving Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations for the donation of human cells, tissues and cellular and tissue-based products (HCT/Ps). These guidelines should provide you with clarity on the clinic's procedure, staff responsible for clinical care, collection of tissues (egg and sperm), how each tissue is handled, identified against the donor, appropriately matched between donors and an identifiable tissue storage facility. Additionally, you need to know the time frame for the process of attempting to create an embryo, how many embryos are being created with your knowledge and consent and the anticipated shelf life of all tissues (eggs, sperm and embryos). Also, what screening, if any, will be done on the tissue (screening may include HIV antibody testing to genetic disorders). Finally, what will be done with unused or unviable tissues and embryos?
Step 5

Fully understand the clinic's emergency backup system in the event of a catastrophic event such as theft, fire or loss of electrical/storage power and capability.
Step 6

A final screening request that you, as a donor and patient, have every right to know about is how staff (MDs, nurse midwives, registered nurses, technicians and others) are screened, trained and/or specialty certified in their area of expertise.
Step 7

Prepare yourself emotionally. Medical errors have always happened, and it seems highly improbable that they are going to simply stop even with all the incredible scientific advances. The one eternal flaw that remains is: clinicians are human. Medical mistakes do not appear as startling as they once were due to the constant 24-hour information onslaught we are hit with daily. Plus, it is virtually impossible to have your life and health impacted by these events either directly or indirectly.

But you still need to protect yourself and those in your life by getting past the notion that healthcare providers are "special people" that should be placed on a pedestal and worshipped. It is time to think of doctors and nurses not so much as "special," but as "different," just like any other person or profession. This will come as a result of mutual respect, appreciation and acknowledging that the best healthcare is done as a team—with you, the patient, being "in charge" as much as realistically possible.

It is time for you—as well as your clinicians—to own up to a very important fact: good health and cures are not strictly found in a pill bottle or at the tip of a scalpel.