Donor Conception
Explore donor egg, donor sperm, and donor embryo as potential pathways with insights and resources from professionals, and real-life perspectives from families of donor conceived children and donor conceived people.
Donor Conception Support Group
Our Donor Conception Peer Group is for people who are looking for an open discussion of the issues, decisions, and emotions surrounding this family building option.
The first session of the month is geared towards those who are considering donor egg, donor sperm, or donor embryo as a way to build their family and those who have begun the donor conception process, but are not yet pregnant/parenting.
The second session of the month is focused on those who are cycling, pregnant, or parenting.
Typical Monthly Schedule
Session 1: 1st Tuesday or 1st Thursday of the month at 7p EST
Session 2: 3rd Wednesday of the month at 7p EST
Danielle’s Journey: “I’m not interested in miracle stories anymore.”
Danielle shares her story of trying to conceive over 40, navigating fertility treatment, donor egg IVF, and the anxiety of becoming pregnant after years of failed cycles. Over the course of the conversation we chat about navigating boundaries while family...
Jen’s Journey: “Families are built on love.”
A born and raised New Yorker, social worker Jen Rachman shares her family’s story from an ovarian cancer diagnosis that sadly left her infertile in her 20s, to the decision that surrogacy was the best route for her and her husband to grow their family. With...
Staci’s Journey: Zigzag to the finish line
CEO and Founder of Family Source Consultants (FSC), Staci Swiderski shares her personal journey as an intended parent, welcoming a son via gestational surrogacy in 2005 and her experience as a known egg donor. Her own fertility challenges led her to found...
The Power of Narrative: Family Storytelling, Diverse Families, and Donor Conception
Featured in the AllPaths Magazine, 2024 Volume 2 By Sonja Klug In mainstream books, films, and ads there is a very dominant narrative of how families happen: Usually, a man and a woman fall in love, have children and live happily after. From a young age,...
Mixed Feelings: Lessons from the Multiracial Donor-Conceived Community
Featured in the AllPaths Magazine, 2024 Volume 1 By Max Tang Growing up biracial in an all-Chinese American family, I often felt like an oddity. I wasn’t the only mixed kid in my world – I didn't know anyone else who was mixed like my twin brother and I. My...
Why I Walk
Guest Post by a member of the 2023 Footsteps for Family Building Walk Committee The hardest battles are given to the strongest soldiers. A story I’ve never fully told publicly even to some of our closest family members, started with our wish for a baby. We...
Biological Family Building for LGBTQ+ Persons
Join Dr. Mark Leondires, medical director of IllumeFertility and founder of GayParentsToBe for this overview of biological family building options for LGBTQ+ people. This discussion covers clinical options for lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer people that are...
Conversations with Children About Donor Conception and Surrogacy
Join family building counselor Ellen S. Glazer, LICSW and explore how potential parents and parents of children through egg, sperm, or embryo donation and/or gestational surrogacy can become proud and confident storytellers who look forward to conversations...
Finding the Right Sperm Donor for You
Guest Post by Courtney Maddox The thought of finding a sperm donor can feel like an overwhelming task considering there are hundreds of qualified donors available through sperm banks in the US. We’ve put together a list of considerations to think through...
Our Rollercoaster to Parenthood
Featured in the RNE Magazine, 2021 Volume 3 By: Shannon McNamee My husband, Shawn, and I had planned to start a family as soon as we got married. We had no idea the topsy-turvy ups and downs we would have to endure to do so! We spent our first year of...
Mommy Days
Featured in the RNE Magazine, 2021 Volume 2 By Rachel Vorkink There are so many ways to resolve fertility and family building challenges and we think it is important to have open conversations about all of them. That's why each issue of the RNE Magazine...
Transatlantic Family Building
Guest Post by Eloise Edington My husband and I had been married for three years before we started trying for a baby. We used to talk in depth about what they’d be called and what they’d be like. So around May 2015, when we thought ‘Right, now is the time to...