Open egg donation in Denmark

My name is Daniela and I have two children from an open egg donation in Denmark. We had 14 attempts at assisted fertilization (IVF and ICSI) before another fertility clinic dared to utter the word „egg donation“ as a second opinion. Only then did I fully understand that the problem was my bad eggs and that there was a solution to this problem. Just not in Germany.

At first, I spontaneously rejected egg donation. But the many failed attempts also do something to you. I knew that egg donation was my only chance of having a child and I thought about what it would mean for us.

I realized that genetics were less important to me than being pregnant with the child. That was a clear argument for me in favor of egg donation, as opposed to adoption. The child would be genetically related to my husband and would be my biological child.

So now I knew that egg donation would not be a problem for me, and I wanted to make sure that a potential child would also be fine. This raised the question of the country and type of egg donation. Open, anonymous, Spain, Czech Republic, Austria, Denmark, or an entirely different country? We first had to decide on our priorities. After talking to a consultant from Bkid, who has experience of starting a family with the help of third parties, we decided that open donation was our main priority.

And so we ended up in Denmark pretty quickly. We had also made contact with Austria, but at that time they had hardly any donors and therefore cooperated with the Czech Republic.

In Holland, we were put off by the age structure, the organizational procedure and the long waiting time.

We contacted a few clinics in Denmark. Our criteria were travel time, age of the donors and waiting time, as well as the price. After making initial contact, we visited our favorite, the Aagaard Clinic, in person and had such a good feeling that we made the donation there.

There is no egg bank in Denmark, each donor donates in one cycle for one family at the Aagaard Clinic, the eggs are fertilized immediately, and the blastocysts are then frozen.

This allowed us to plan the transfer day well, as we had a long journey of twelve hours, which was not insignificant, as we couldn’t leave spontaneously.

We received an open donor with an extended profile at the clinic, which means that we received photos of the children and a completed questionnaire. That meant a lot to us because the unknown woman became so much more tangible, and we can actually tell the children a thing or two about their donor. That’s a big plus for us.

We now have two children, and the second transfer has worked. The donation doesn’t play a big role in everyday life. The children are simply our children, and we love them more than anything. I am infinitely grateful to the donor because she made it possible for me to become a mother.

I also wrote a book about my experiences. I wanted to make egg donation better known and show those affected that this option is available. It is not the right way for everyone, but it can be a good way, and those affected need to know that this way exists to decide. The book is called „Der zweite Strich – Mama dank offener Eizellspende in Dänemark“ and is available online via Amazon and offline in bookstores via ISBN 979-8425130891.