ARR Offers Extended Choice In Egg Donor Selections

Alternative Reproductive Resources has announced a program designed to remove some of the pressure from the egg donor selection process.

Called Extended Choice, the program offers intended parents, for a nominal fee, "first choice" on selected egg donors during a 72-hour period. This means that participants have that window of time after viewing a donor to decide if she is right for them prior to making a selection. During that period, other prospective parents may view the donor's profile, but are precluded from choosing her until the 72 hours are up.

"The process of choosing an egg donor is hugely stressful because of the competition for a limited pool of qualified donors," said Robin von Halle. "Once prospective parents find a donor who fits their criteria, they have to make the decision to accept her -- fast -- because she might not be available the next day, or even in another hour.

"Extended Choice gives participants some much-needed breathing room, time to take pause and mull over their choice without worrying that delay will cost them the donor who was, in fact, the perfect match for them."

Typically, agencies like ARR share information about egg donors with their clients two ways -- through the manual process of reviewing detailed, identity-protected profiles of available donors or, increasingly, via Web-enabled means. Either way, the intended parents don't usually pay to review donor profiles.

"And we don't typically charge for this part of our service, either," said von Halle. "But we believe some of our clients will like this option and believe it money well spent."