Giving the Chance: Egg Donor Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe donating eggs, from the first application to the years afterwards. Some writers were drawn by money, a social work student with loans or a single mom who drives a school bus; others gave to a sister after five rounds of IVF, a cousin who lost her fertility to chemo, a best friend, two dads in Seattle, or shared eggs to afford their own treatment. They write from Austin to Athens, Cape Town, Prague, Valencia and Copenhagen, under very different rules on payment and anonymity. Among them are an emergency room nurse, a line cook, a cabin crew member juggling a flight roster, a fitness instructor, a nonbinary donor called ma'am throughout, and an adoptee who chose to be open with any future child. Writers describe daily shots given by a nervous husband, a five-hour drive each way to the clinic, mood swings, thirty-four eggs and only six, a mother who first said absolutely not, and a letter that arrived fourteen months later. Some were turned down, one had a cycle cancelled over a cyst, a gene test revealed something unexpected, and one donor ended up in hospital. Others later wondered whether donating had affected their own fertility, and many never learned whether a baby was born.

Who it's for

For anyone considering egg donation, anyone who has already donated, and the partners, parents, friends and recipient families who want to understand what the process asks of a donor.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 233 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.