We have all become travellers with cheaper airfares and now with the internet the whole world has become accessible and this has effected change in the fertility world. Many people are exploring options offshore when locally their needs are not being met.
Mostly people are travelling because they cannot find an egg or sperm donor. A few travel in the quest for surrogacy or because they perceive that better technologies may be available elsewhere.
With regards to sperm donation, then prior to the introduction of the HART act in NZ in 2004 then it was possible to go on line to most American sperm banks, select your favourite sperm donor profile (maybe 6 foot 2 inches, tanned with green eyes and a lawyer) and get the sperm shipped down. Now it is illegal to import sperm where the donor has been paid. So this means going there. However there are some real downsides to going to an overseas clinic for sperm donation and not just about the cost. The real downside is around losing the upside of the HART act, which allows the child to contact their donor into the future. The other huge drawback is that your donor may already have tens or even hundreds of offspring. It is also hard to know how well the donors have been screened for infectious and genetic diseases. Also many overseas clinics have a much more aggressive approach to multiple pregnancies. At Fertility Associates the current wait time for a clinic recruited sperm donor is around 10 months and for a sperm donor in an IVF programme it is only 3 months, so would I encourage offshore sperm donation? It's a no from me.
Egg donation is a little different. It is all about age in the world of egg donation so the younger the egg donor the more likely that a baby will result from her eggs. There are many countries where it is legal to pay egg donors (not in NZ or Australia) which has encouraged a thriving industry around young women effectively selling their eggs. There are some risks to the egg donor as a result of the egg donation process namely ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, bleeding or rarely infection at the time of egg collection possibly resulting in infertility. Once again overseas egg donation often means that the process is anonymous, multiple pregnancies are more common and it is harder to be sure about the standards of the clinic. So if you are considering overseas egg donation I would encourage people to choose a reputable clinic, from a developed country and ask lots of questions. We have forged a relationship with the San Diego Fertility Centre as we know the doctors, have visited their clinic and are very satisfied with their standards of practice. Over the past year about 30 couples have travelled to San Diego and had egg donation and more than 70 % are now pregnant half with twins. The cost is huge around NZ$45,000 and any frozen embryos created cannot be imported back into NZ so more travel is required.
There is an argument around the exploitive aspects of egg donation but I think that is something that individuals need to resolve within themselves. My personal view is that provided a woman is 20 or more (so can vote, drink and fight for her country) and has been given appropriate information about the process of egg donation, counselling and the process is performed according to best practice, then compensation for egg donation is very reasonable.
Travelling for surrogacy is way harder as once the baby is born it is difficult or impossible to bring the baby back into NZ and arrange the adoption process.My advice is seek extensive legal advice before even considering this.
So if travelling overseas for fertility treatment is some you are considering, ask your local fertility specialists for advice, they will be able to give you a heads up around the process, good clinics and the legal aspects.
