to London, and back

The trip finally happened - it was all a bit of a flurry of events, one after another, a quick succession of outcomes, but isn't life just like that. T was a wonderful host who planned my stay extremely well and all the little nice touches (making sure the hotel is aware I will have a very early check-in; having a driver to greet me at Heathrow; planning to meet me only after I have enough rest to get over jet-lag, etc) made me appreciate her more. We finally met at a bustling restaurant overlooking Covent Garden on Thursday lunch-time. She is a beautiful and terrific woman, and is everything I expected of her through our numerous correspondences over email.

On Friday morning I made my way to Baker Street to meet the counsellor for the mandatory counselling session. It was a great session - words flowed easily and she went through pretty much all the questions I have thought of previously. She is quite the opposite of the stoic doctor who counselled me in HK. There were a few points she brought up which were a surprise to me, e.g. the child born from my donated egg has the right to sue me once he/she turns 18 should I not disclose any pre-existing medical condition that I am aware of. But of course I have my entire family's medical history disclosed so it's more likely a case of knowing a little too much!

I was then off to the clinic (the ARGC), housed in a nondescript building right at the end of the street just like any row of identical houses in London. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be and in fact I found it quite quiet. T arrived soon after and we had the meeting with one of the head nurses - no doctors as they were too busy - and she talked us through the egg donation procedure together. It seemed that the ARGC needed me to do a lot more than my procedure with Dr C and I found myself wondering if it was all necessary. Of course T and myself just wanted everything done and over with but there is so much to do: first of all I had to undergo the whole series of blood tests, then choose a monitoring cycle to be done in September, followed by the actual cycle in November. We decided that November will be better for the both of us for the actual cycle as it will give us more time to work out several logistical issues.

I was told that I have to go on the nasal spray when I begin ovulating prior to the actual cycle. After about ten days of the spray my period should start and I will then begin the injections. At this stage I will still be in Hong Kong and going in to Dr C for (more) blood tests and monitoring. On day 5 of my injections I will then fly to London for the rest of the treatment, which by then will just mean about a week left to the egg retrieval.

There is a lot to digest and work out, like the timing of my injections while I'm still in HK. With the previous egg donation, I injected at about 8-9pm and this made sense as the last jab will have to be exactly 36 hours before the retrieval (which is usually scheduled for 9am). With the 7-hour time difference between Hong Kong and London, I will have to inject the Gonal F at about 3-4am while I'm in HK! That will be quite a task indeed.

It was a short walk to the other clinic for the blood tests and once that was done, T and I parted ways. We said our goodbyes and I gave her a warm hug - she has been nothing short of gracious and wonderful - and deep down, I am truly delighted to know that my donated eggs will have a mom like her.

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Now all I have to do is to enjoy my summer (a lot of travelling!) and wait till September when I will begin my monitoring cycle with Dr C. Hopefully the blistering hot humid summer of HK will pass soon. I can't wait for autumn!

more logistical hurdles to clear

I certainly didn't expect the second donation to be this laborious to manage. First of all, because T is based in London I have to set up a phone call for both Dr C and her to speak. They managed to connect on Thursday evening and discussed the options for the procedure such as doing the entire treatment in Hong Kong or in the UK, or splitting it (injections/ultrasounds done in HK and egg retrieval done in the UK).

To complicate things, there is a law in Hong Kong which states that only three "live birth events" are allowed from one donor. A "live birth event" is defined as an event of birth in Hong Kong of one or more than one live child from a single pregnancy (so twins and multiples are still considered as one live birth). But according to Dr C, if the embryo transfer is done in Hong Kong it will be considered a "live birth event" regardless of where the baby is eventually born! So if T chooses to do the embryo transfer in Hong Kong, it will add to the number of "live birth events" that is allowed for my donated eggs. I suppose the implications of this isn't of any significant importance - yet. It will only affect my decision to donate for the third time but it's not looking likely at the moment, just because I want my body to have a break from the drugs.

Now, if the transfer happens in the UK I will be required by UK IVF law to have an assessment which means I will have to take a flight to London. It's not a biggie for me especially since I truly enjoy being in England but I doubt I have many leave days left this year to be off from work.

T managed to speak to the egg donation specialist at her clinic yesterday and established that to send the embryos from Hong Kong to the UK will not be the best idea when the alternative is a live transfer in either country. Also, T has certain issues that need to be addressed, e.g. she has high level of cytokines that make her womb hostile to embryos so she needs to be treated before the start of the IVF treatment.

Phew! That's the whole lot to digest for now. I'm just taking this one step at a time and besides, it's really up to T to decide what she wants - whether to do the transfer in Hong Kong or the UK. This is a critical decision as it will mean either one of us will have to spend a considerable time away from home. Like I said, I am definitely not closed to going to London (I was very prepared for it anyway!) but it may get difficult if I have to spend more than a week there.


I have updated on Twitter earlier that T declined to share the donated eggs with H. It was a difficult decision but one that I fully understood - with all these complex issues to clear, there really is no need for another hurdle to be thrown into the mix. T mentioned that Dr C will try to retrieve only 10-15 eggs this time which means there will only be a handful (if at all) which make it to the blastocyst stage. I was actually quite surprised as I thought 20+ eggs is a more decent number; after all, I really don't want to go through all the injections and proddings and blood tests to have no blastocyst at the end!

It has been pissing down with rain in Hong Kong all of Saturday and while it's all pretty glorious to me (I just love the shades of grey in this city), I think it's going to be an awful day for H to realize that she's back to square one with her search for donated eggs. If only there is a way to remove half of all my available eggs in my body all at once and give it to anyone who wants it.