The T-Male Presents:
YOUR EGGS, DONOR SPERM & HER WOMB
Disclaimer:
Always consult a medical professional when you consider any of the topics discussed within this site.
Any and all commentaries on this site that touch upon medical procedures are not meant to substitute solid medical advise.
This area pertains primarily to Female to Male Transsexual Surrogate Parenthood. Site stats show searches done by non-FTM persons are abundant. Please note that all statistics in this area are true and correct and apply to genetic couples who wish to utilize IVF or Surrogates to produce a child.
I have been asked about egg harvesting from a couple of people. The number one
question is, "Can my eggs be harvested before I start *T.?" The number
two question is, "Can my harvested eggs be implanted in my
girlfriend?."
The answers to both of these are yes but the process, IVF, In-Vitro
Fertilization, is quite complicated and risky not to mention expensive.
The first successful IVF was
performed in 1978 by doctor Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards. Two baby girls
resulted from this, Baby Louise and Baby Elizabeth.
More often than not, Transmen are wondering how the heck they will pay for top
surgery, a hyst, or a phalloplasty or Metoidioplasty, paying for this kind of
thing is going to be amazingly expensive..
If one were to seriously entertain the thought of egg harvesting, artificial
insemination in vitro, also known as IVF, and/or freezing of the eggs, one might
be prepared for the whole process to possibly exceed what a hysterectomy, a
double mastectomy, and a reasonably priced Metoidioplasty and or Phalloplasty
cost would be combined!
First, be aware that even now in the
year 2001, eggs fail to develop 70% of the time. That's only a 30% success rate.
In reality, more than 50% of couples walk away childless.
It is not uncommon for each attempt at harvesting with insemination and
implantation to cost up to and possibly above $15,000 per session.
In the Eastern US, a couple featured on NOVA, a PBS special called "18 Ways to Make a Baby", paid between $12,000 and $15,000 per IVF cycle ( implantation session). Another woman featured paid $40,000 for 5 IVF cycles, which is pretty reasonable. And it takes many many tries before a pregnancy is achieved, if at all.
Since IVF is cost prohibitive for
most, it is quite common for couples to run out of money and then forced to
stop. This is because most medical insurance policies do not cover this kind of
medical procedure.
Statistics for the year 2000 show that 33% of women under 30 undergoing IVF
become pregnant and there is only an 8% chance of women over 40 becoming
pregnant with this procedure. The older the woman, the older the egg and the
risk of abnormal chromosomes or missing chromosomes from the egg.
Okay, if you are really serious, the first thing you both would have to do for
egg harvesting is go on daily injections such as Metrodine, to stimulate your
ovaries into producing many eggs at a time. The drug is given to your girlfriend
or wife, as well, if you are not opting for cryogenic freezing of your eggs, so
the two of you ovulated at the same time, which will take months.
These types of drugs are to be used
with great care because these drugs can cause ovarian cysts. They elevate
estrogen levels.
As a result of these high levels of estrogen, ones breast might become larger.
And, of course, the menses will begin again if one was previously on
Testosterone injection/The patch, or the gel, which will have to be stopped. It
is always best to consider harvesting your eggs BEFORE you start T because being
on T for a long time before can compromise the integrity of your eggs and being
on T during T use will cause a specific birth defect in female fetuses
necessitating corrective surgery.
Again, if you are already on T you will have to stop T. The time in which
stopping T and egg harvesting could be up to one year before any complications
from the effects of the T are noticed, if at all. So, this means you may have to
wait for up to a year before your eggs can be harvested.
If the ovaries 'perk back up' and IF there is no damage from atrophy or
dormancy, eggs might be able to be harvested but only after the egg stimulating
drugs are given.
The need for a plethora of eggs is due to the fact that many of the eggs
harvested are not fully formed or immature. And also because the more eggs
implanted after insemination, the greater the chance of a pregnancy.
There is a real risk that when the eggs of the donor female are implanted in the
surrogate, her immune system might view the eggs as invading organisms or
bacteria then send out T cells to kill them and may well succeed. Also, the
uterus might have an acidic lining and kill the eggs by itself. But if your
surrogate, wife or girlfriend has a hospitable uterus for the newly planted egg
to 'live' in, the eggs might survive.
There is a real risk of a multiple pregnancy with all these eggs being
implanted: twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, and on and on.
An astonishing 1/3 of IVF pregnancies result in a multiple pregnancy. Then your worries will not just be the health and safety of the mother-to-be but the fetuses, as well. Just carrying twins is hard on the mother and her body; a multiple pregnancy can be very dangerous for her and the fetuses. Mothers just carrying twins need to eat 5 or more meals per day!
Did you know that most multiple pregnancies (excluding twins) these days are due
to women using fertility drugs or using in vitro insemination with
re-implantation of her own eggs? It's true.
At your harvesting session, with the procedure I am familiar with, it's similar
to having a pelvic and pap smear but often done under general anesthesia. An
instrument similar to a long syringe with a long slender glass tube like needle
is inserted into your vagina, through the cervix opening, then into an ovary. A
clear fluid is extracted and immediately taken to a waiting pathologist or lab
to view under a microscope to find eggs, if any are in that sample. He or
she will count how many and determine if they are viable or unusable. If none
are present or not enough are present, the doctor will go back into the ovary
and try again, repeating the procedure I just described until enough eggs are
harvested. If you are not put under, you will be given a drug such as Versed to
relax you. Versed has a great affect; temporary amnesia afterward so you don't
remember the pain or a lot of it.
Once all the eggs are harvested in that session, they will be introduced to the
donor sperm in-vitro or can be frozen for a later date. You can use sperm from a
genetic male friend, donated prior or use sperm from a sperm bank to fertilize
the harvested eggs then freeze them after the cell begins to divide within the
ovum or egg.
Freezing the eggs are yet another
expense.
The chances of you being able to waltz in with a container of sperm from a
friend not going to happen. They will want the donation to be done in a sterile
controlled environment. Your sperm donor may have to contribute at a local sperm
bank, if you have a donor, if he is not able to donate at the fertility center
you use. Whether you have a donor at the sperm bank or are using a sperm bank
anonymous donation, they are both another added cost, each and every time you
have to make a withdrawal, so to speak.
A New York City sperm bank charges a flat rate of $5,000 for the first sperm
withdrawal for insemination and $3,000 for each withdrawal thereafter. You will
be making at least 10 withdrawals to inseminate your eggs with in vitro (more
cost) and then implant in your significant other (more cost). That's $32,000 for
10 sessions, for just the sperm. This does not include all the other charges.
To recap:
You will have to stop T or delay starting it for up to a year, maybe longer depending on how determined you and your surrogate are.
You both will be given injections to stimulate your ovaries into producing a whole lot of eggs for harvesting which will cause periods to begin again and breasts to enlarge, if you still have them.
The chances of your insurance covering harvesting, sperm bank costs, or cryogenic/freezing costs is low to non-existent.**
Each harvesting and IVF implantation session can cost up to and above 15 thousand dollars.
The chances of miscarriage is high if a pregnancy is achieved; the eggs may die inside her uterus, resulting in a heartbreaking miscarriage, necessitating another implantation session.
She could become pregnant with twins or more thereby risking her and the fetuses health/life because there is a 30% chance they will be born premature.
**They might cover the doctor visits
but IVF insemination of each egg with a single sperm, most likely the answer
will be No. I doubt if they will cover lab storing cost, implantation sessions,
pregnancy tests, ect. I haven't heard of any insurance company to pay for IVF.
That's why couples end up using up retirement money, 401K's, or drain their
entire savings.
And to be fair, I feel it best to discuss what risks & problems pregnancy
holds for women regularly. The woman will most likely have back pain,
incontinence, painful hemorrhoids during just a single pregnancy and may spend
the last 3-6 months in bed with a multiple. Pregnancy can be hard on her
internal organs especially a multiple. The fetuses demand so much of her body
for food, she can become very ill and weak and must eat several times a day.
They share her blood and extract their nutrients from her. She will need a very
painful caesarian section which puts her at risk for bleeding and stroke if she
has Pre-eclampsia. Pre-eclampsia, usually shows up in about the 20th week of
pregnancy is characterized by hypertension (high blood pressure which can lead
to stroke), edema (water retention swelling which compromises blood flow to the
limbs) and proteinuria (high protein levels in the urine indicating kidney
damage). Pregnancy just seems like it's a low risk event for a woman; it's
not.
Now for some reality statistics about multiple births. You will incur months of
intensive neonatal care costs, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and
some of them may not survive. They are almost always born premature and if the
children are born premature, 30% of all multiple babies weigh less than 2 pounds
and 1 on 4 multiples have serious developmental disabilities.
This is an option for wealthy Transmen and their girlfriends/wives or surrogates
and not one to be taken lightly by anyone.
If you don't have a wife or girl
friend willing to do this, you will end up paying a surrogate a fee (very
costly) and covering all her medical expenses. This cannot be done without an
attorney (another expense), that is if you are smart. In fact, it would also be
best to hire an attorney even if the surrogate is your wife or long time girl
friend. Really, be smart. Those eggs are yours. She might walk out of you life
with your child one day and you will fight an uphill battle if you don't have
this legally taken care of before the pregnancy is even attempted.
If all of this is totally out of reach financially, you can always find a
genetic male friend who is willing to donate sperm and you use the good old
turkey baster method to impregnate your wife or girl friend and hope for the
best. Doing it that way will simply cost you a few bucks for the turkey baster
and more if you have some class and buy your sperm donating buddy a fine aged
bottle of single malt scotch for his services. But if he's a beer man, a case of
beer is a small price to pay. You might consider an attorney for this, as well.
Oh, and don't forget money for the pre-natal check-ups, delivery and
hospitalization costs, then the cost for raising a child for 18 years, medical,
college, ect.
It is estimated that a child born in
the year 2001 will cost on the low end, $200,000 for 4 years of college when
they graduate from high school.
For more info on all of this, visit www.pbs.com
see "18 Ways to Have a Baby" or you might try searching the internet
with keywords like, sperm donation, artificial insemination, surrogate
motherhood, fertility specialists, and the like. When I have to look information
up on the web, I use www.Metacrawler.com
or www.go.com . Also look in your local
yellow pages for fertility specialists.
Three places were profiled in the NOVA PBS special that aired Oct. 13, 2001:
NY-Weill Cornell Center, Saint
Barnabas Medical Center and Center For Surrogate Parenting
In closing: Adoption is a wonderful thing and there are too many children
without families out there as it is. If Rosie O can adopt being a single
lesbian, you can, too. That was not a dig at Rosie or lesbians; it is an example
of how adoption is changing. In fact, I personally know a transman who was
awarded custody of his girlfriend's child by the courts in his state when the
mother abandoned them.
Please note: I am not giving you medical advise, I am sharing my knowledge with
you !
Disclaimer: Any and all commentaries on this site that touch upon medical
procedures are not meant to substitute solid medical advise.
Commentaries such as these are meant
'for your consideration' only.
Always consult a medical professional when you consider any of the topics discussed within this site.
© Originally composed 2001 - information obtained through various sources; internet, television and doctors options. All right reserved.