Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Cryopreserve this!
Today I started looking into "directed donor" programs, starting with the oh-so-convenient (comparatively speaking) cryobank in Boston. The rep on the phone told me all about their rules and procedures, only to say at the end that they don't like working with known donors because "they hardly ever work out" and that they'd reccommend that we just go anonymous unless he's a family member and that they don't like to work with out of state donors and that the whole thing will cost you a ballpark of $4000 or more. But we should still call back if we think we want to go through all that or if we decide to go anonymous. Now, I have just a few things to say about all that. First, maybe this particular cryobank has known donors that don't work out because they make it so damn hard to do it! Second, his being a family member would have no bearing on our decision since he's an acquaintance, but their exception for that totally ignores all the myriad other reasons we have for choosing to go through a known donor if possible- as if our reasons are not important- not exactly good doctor-patient-attitude if you ask me. Third, being pooh-pooh on out of state donors is just silly because it limits people's options in such a contradictory way, partly because I think people choosing KDs generally choose them because they know and like them (not because of where they live) and partly because at least for us, his living out of state is a big plus- one more reason we like him. Lastly, the costs are just exploitative and wrong. Period. Cranky, cranky, huh?
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3 comments:
oh no! I bet I know which bank that is (as a local!) and we didn't use the directed donor option - but holy cow! If it's the same one we used ICK! They were so friendly & helpful with us when we used the ADs... :-( I do know it's expensive to do directed because of the testing they require and storage fees... but OUCH!!!
I think that is the same bank that we started with while doing frizen. For the most part they were really easy to deal with - except when it came time to sell back...that was a pain in the a$$. I may have missed something, but why do you need a cryo bank to use a KD? Would you have it frozen?
By way of explanation:
He lives at a distance, so it would be a lot easier if he can just go through one series of donations at a bank that we can store and use whenever we want, which is how he'd prefer to go about it- fine with us! The secondary benefit is that it's somewhat legally clearer when going through a bank and doctor than from him to us. Since we don't know him very well and since donor contracts are not always held up in court, we like the extra legal distance. So... the very expensive bank. Voila ;)
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