Monday, July 20, 2015

The luck of the draw

The particulars of Alexandra Gammelgard's egg donations are a bit of a blur to her.

Between the ages 18 and 21, she donated to at least four infertile couples, using two, maybe three, agencies that paid her from $5,000 to $15,000 for each donation. She was trying to pay for her education at UC San Diego and didn't keep track of the details.

"The college years of your life go by so fast, and you do so many crazy, random things that it's hard to remember it all," Gammelgard, now 23, says.

She believes at least four children were conceived from her eggs, results she was proud of. In recent months, however, she got grim news: One has Tay-Sachs, a neurological disease that usually kills its victims before age 5.

A child can develop the disease only if both parents carry a relatively rare genetic mutation. Gammelgard said she had no clue she was a carrier; she hadn't been tested because she wasn't in the groups at highest risk.

She knows now. The couple raising the sick child contacted the agency that arranged Gammelgard's egg donation. The agency told her.

But neither she nor the agency has made any effort to inform the other families who used Gammelgard as a donor....

Gammelgard seemed a good bet. She'd already helped at least one other couple conceive, through a different agency.

As a freshman, she'd noticed an ad in her college paper. "It was like 'Be an angel,' she recalled. " 'Make money for college. A family is looking for a donor.' "

She got in touch with several agencies, fielding offers from one, then another. "I feel like I look good on paper," she said, noting that she was a high school valedictorian with interests in art and sports.

After examining Surrogate Alternatives' Web catalog of donors, Karl and Steiger thought so too. She was tall, athletic and blond. She cited no serious family health problems. The couple picked her based mostly on a picture and questionnaire.

She had written: "I feel like egg-donating is my gift to give to the world."

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-34159836/

I had another patient with an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder where the pregnancy was accomplished by donor sperm

1 comment:

  1. Although Krystie never said a single word in her 9+ years, she showed her love and emotion through her eyes and with her smiles. She was always a happy little girl who loved to travel, loved swimming in the ocean, loved a good bath and spa treatment and loved the sound of a good horn at the outdoor concerts that help make this town spectacular in the summer months. Today, we know that she is in a place with many horns sounding in heavenly delight.

    http://www.startribune.com/obituaries/detail/86039/?fullname=krystie-anna-karl-steiger

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