These eggs aren’t a dime a dozen, but worth their weight

By Stephanie Bertholdo Acorn Staff Writer

Bivian Marr is a matchmaker. At Alternative Conceptions in Agoura Hills, Marr is known for matching people who yearn for a child with egg donors who can help them conceive.

Marr provides hope for women who postponed pregnancy only to discover that their ova are no longer viable or for other reasons, including genetic disorders or congenital abnormalities. If they’re unable to conceive, Marr is an alternative.

Marr is the founder of Alternative Conceptions, an international agency that matches future parents with egg donors. As the first person in the United States to establish an ovum donation program, Marr said she’s set a high standard of professionalism.

Marr and her staff provide a personal, warm, confidential haven to couples, single women or gay men who’d like to have a child, she said.

A nurse practitioner who’s specialized in fertility for more than 25 years, Marr offers various methods to have a child with a biological link.

Gestational surrogacy is when a woman carries the egg of the intended parents or if the intended parents use an egg donor.

"In-vitro fertilization (IVF) has allowed us to do all this," Marr said, explaining that the egg is fertilized out of the woman’s body and transferred back, either into the future mother’s body or through a surrogate.

Married women can choose to have the egg inseminated with her husband’s sperm, while a single woman could either choose a friend for the sperm or have both the egg and sperm donated. Even gay men can have a family through surrogacy.

Alternative Conceptions recruits "young, healthy women who lead a healthy lifestyle, and who aren’t involved in any high risk behavior," Marr said. She added that her staff puts prospective donors "through a number of hoops" by asking many questions at different times. If they "trip up on their story," Marr said, then they might be inappropriate for egg donation.

"There is a degree of trust," Marr said, that develops between her and her staff and the women who donate their eggs. Once a prospective egg donor makes it through the interview phase, she must see a staff psychologist and a geneticist to receive a clean bill of emotional and physical health.

Marr added that while she and her staff collect extensive information on each donor, privacy is paramount and prospective parents receive a password to view the donor’s personal details on the company’s Website. The women who donate eggs are identified by their first name only. It’s completely anonymous. Conversely, donors give up all rights to the eggs they produce in a cycle, which is anywhere from 10 to 30 eggs.

Prospective parents, Marr said, are "usually looking for a donor who resembles them," while egg donors find it rewarding to help a couple have a baby.

With a bevy of fertility treatments available to women, Marr said that "it’s unusual for women to go right to egg donation" as a means of conceiving a child, "but it does happen."

Most doctors, she said, have an upper limit as to the age they’ll do IFV, usually in the early 50s. She added that most physicians will put women older than 45 through a battery of tests to make sure they can carry a fetus to term.

Usually 15 to 20 eggs are produced within one cycle, Marr said, adding that 10 to 12 of those eggs are fertilized with an average of three being transferred. The remaining eggs can be frozen "for another chance," Marr said.

Eggs can be frozen for years, Marr said. The medical community doesn’t even know if there’s any time limit on how long they can be frozen. While frozen eggs "don’t deteriorate or change quality" while frozen, not all of the eggs survive freezing and thawing. The goal for most infertile women is to have one or two children, and with egg donors, these children are genetically linked.

The success rate for having a child through egg donation is high. Marr said that nationally, it’s between 60 and 80 percent.

Alternative Conceptions follows "all aspects" of guidelines set forth by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), which state that a woman can donate up to six cycles of eggs.

Donors are paid $5,000 for one cycle of eggs. If they donate a second time, the fee goes up to $5,500 or $6,000. The cost for prospective parents is higher, with doctor and lab fees as well as the IVF program.

"It’s a wonderful answer for many women who’ve delayed having children or have other health problems," Marr said. Everyone who’s associated with egg donation (staff, doctors and nurses) make it very rewarding for donors, she said.

"It’s almost as rewarding for me to work with donors as it is working with families," Marr said.