I just had an interesting conversation with a woman who was both an egg donor and later was diagnosed with DOR (diminished ovarian reserve).

This woman told me how she was an egg donor when she was young, and donated twice. The recipient couples were both successful in conceiving children from her donations. Later on in her life, she decided to start having children herself. She had her first child without problem, but started having trouble with her second only 17 months later and was diagnosed with DOR. She was told that she might need egg donation to help her conceive, and this made her upset knowing others were successful with her eggs - why couldn't she use her own now? She went through IVF treatment first to attempt with her own eggs (chances were slim, only 3 eggs were retrieved), and luckily she got pregnant with her 2nd child.

I asked her if she thought donating caused this result? She told her doctor that she donated her eggs and asked if he thought her diagnosis was a direct result from this. His response to her was that they were unrelated. The truth is, she almost waited too long to have her own children (5-7 years after she donated), and her own eggs began their natural decline.

Today, she is still a very strong supporter of egg donation. In her turmoil of trying to get pregnant, her last hope was that she could find an egg donor to help her conceive. She almost experienced being both a donor and a recipient, so she still feels very supportive that egg donation is safe and an amazing gift that any woman could give to another.

In response to this post, my Case Manager said, "Actually, by being a donor and receiving the hormone injections to stimulate her ovaries, it is a positive thing and may have helped to slow down or delay her DOR."