- After initial contact via phone or email, we will create an account for you to access our donor database.
- If you see donors you like, we will provide you with their full profile
so you can review their health histories and photos of their families. If you seek additional information about certain donors, we will contact
the donors and inform you of their responses. You can view profiles and photos on our online database.
- Once you select a donor you would like, we will collect an initial administrative advance to pay for the initial coordination.
- Meeting with a donor can be scheduled to share background
information and answer additional questions (this step is completely optional).
- If your donor is a first-time donor, we will refer her to a therapist for a psychological evaluation. If she is a repeat donor, her psychological evaluation and medical records are sent to your clinic for
physician review.
- After the donor completes the psychological evaluation, you will send us the balance of the administrative fee so that the contracts can be drafted and sent to the recipient(s) and donor. Both recipients and donors are welcome to have the contract reviewed by a separate attorney. The contract must be signed by both parties and the recipient must pay all remaining fees prior to the donor's Medical Screening Appointment (MSA).
- Once the donor's health history, signed contracts, proof of insurance,
and psychological evaluation are on file at your clinic, the clinic nurse
will schedule an appointment with your donor for an initial (MSA)
which includes infectious disease testing, genetic screening, and
cultures.
- When the blood testing results are available, the clinic will draft and distribute the cycle calendar to the donor and to recipient(s)
and egg donation cycle begins.
A Step by Step Guide to Working with our Agency
STEP 1 - Initial Contact
When you contact our office for information, we will send you our recipient package which contains background information on Jackie Gorton, Nurse Attorney Inc. along with a letter outlining potential costs and articles written by donors, recipients and mental health professionals.
STEP 2 - Orientation Meeting, Online Database, Donor Profiles
We schedule you for an appointment to meet in our office, if possible. This meeting provides us the opportunity to get to know one another. If you are unable to meet with us in-office we’ll provide you with a username and password to access our on-line donor database. Please remember when viewing the on-line database that though we update on a regular basis, donors are matched at a first come, first serve basis and you will want to call as soon as you’ve found the donor you like to make sure she is available. Checking our database frequently provides for the most up-to-date status of all donors and allows you to view complete profiles and photos of all of the donors in our pool.
STEP 3 - Donor Selection
You, the recipients(s), will select a donor whom you feel is the “right fit” for you. Recipient parents have their own guidelines for choosing their donor; however we are always here to assist you in your donor selection.
STEP 4 - Donor Agrees to Cycle / Donor Meeting
We contact the prospective donor you have chosen to verify her availability and give her information on your clinic, etc. If you are interested in meeting your prospective donor we will make all necessary arrangements to facilitate the meeting in our office.
STEP 5 - Donor Match and Initial Co-ordination
Once you and your donor have decided to work with one another a deposit on the administrative fee is paid to Jackie Gorton, Nurse Attorney Inc. for the initial coordination. Donor profiles are sent to the therapist and your fertility clinic and the donor is referred to a therapist to schedule her psychological evaluation.
STEP 6 - Donor Cycle Contract
After the clinic receives the donor’s psychological evaluation and profile we collect the administrative before sending out a legally binding Donor Service Contract, which addresses mutual rights and responsibilities including a schedule of payment of fees, a statement that the donor has no legal right to the eggs or the child, and hold harmless clauses, etc. Your donor fees are due with your contract. All fees with the signed contract must be received before the date of the donor’s MSA.
STEP 7 - Escrow Account
Once we've received the signed contracts from both parties, Jackie Gorton, Nurse Attorney Inc. will send out collated copies of the Ovum Donorship Service Contract to recipient and donor. The donor fee and money for expenses is held in a trust account. We pay the donor her fee after the retrieval and reimburse her for her expenses once we approve her costs as delineated on her expense report.
STEP 8 - Donor Medical Screening Appointment (MSA)
At the MSA, the fertility physician reviews the donor’s health history profile, completes infectious disease testing, toxicology screens, cervical cultures, a vaginal ultrasound, and a physical exam, etc. Once the blood and other test results are in and approved, the fertility physician medically clears the donor as a viable candidate to proceed with the cycle.
STEP 9 - Cycle Calendar
Your fertility clinic nurse will provide the donor and recipient calendar which identifies dates for start of injections and estimated week of retrieval and transfer. It usually takes 2 to 3 months from the date that recipient and donor decide to work together until retrieval. The donor is usually on follicle stimulating hormones for 10 days. The donor and recipient(s) must send us a copy of the cycle calendar and to inform us of all appointments with the fertility clinic so that we can assist as needed. The co-ordination of a donor cycle can differ from the above based on unique requirements of the recipient or donor.
STEP 10 - Retrieval and Final Accounting
Once retrieval is completed, we will send the donor her service fee. The donor has ten business days to return her expense report and related receipts. We will reimburse the donor for her expenses from the escrow account and send a refund (if any) to the recipient. If the recipient has signed a medical release form that we sent to her, we can ask the fertility clinic to report to us how many eggs were retrieved, the number of embryos that were transferred and frozen, and most of all if there was a pregnancy. There is a high percentage of twin pregnancies and usually there are enough embryos for a future transfer.
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