Embryo Donor Spotlight: Natasha.

We are so excited to support Natasha through her matching process and beyond, and have asked Natasha to share a bit more about herself and her decision to donate her embryos

Natasha is a California-based single mom with 11 embryos remaining. She is a doctor and part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and was an egg donor in her 20s. She is now looking to donate her remaining embryos to an “open recipient/family who is interested in creating a unique bond and creating a modern extended family!” 

Tell us about yourself and your family, and your decision to donate your remaining embryos.

I grew up in the 80's version of a donor conceived family.  I never knew my biological dad growing up and ended up getting in contact with him in my 20's.  At that point I found out I had three half siblings- two of which I am friends with now on social media and have met up with once.  I always wished I grew up in a big crazy family and from a very young age knew I absolutely wanted to be a mom.  In my 20's when I started to learn about fertility issues I decided to become an egg donor.  I couldn't imagine not being able to fulfill my dream of having kids and I thought if I was able to help others fulfill that dream it was something I wanted to do.  I ended up donating my eggs a number of times in my 20's.  Life is always full of surprises and once I was ready to have kids of my own I ended up doing IVF.  I knew I wouldn't end up using all of my embryos and wanted to pursue embryo donation when the time came.  

What are you looking for in recipients and in the relationship your family will build with recipients? 

I don't have a lot of specific requirements for a recipient family.  I am hoping I will just know when it's the right match.  I often find myself having a strong intuition and hope the perfect match is out there.  I do want an open relationship between my family and the recipient family.  This is very important to me.  Over the last few years I have learned a lot about donor conceived children and across the board the consensus is open access to their genetic family is what is considered best.  I have always wanted a big family and my life has taken a number of unexpected turns leaving me in a position where I don't have the typical family structure.  I think that embryo donation is a way to continue to build an extended, modern family. 

How do you conceptualize the modern family you hope to create with your recipients, and how do you talk to (or plan to talk to) your children about it?

I am very clear that any donated embryos will be the children of the recipient family- and they will make all of the parenting decisions and day-to-day decisions. I hope for a cousin-type relationship between my children and the children of the recipient family. My kids have always known they were created with the help of a [sperm] donor as it was very important to me that it was something they always knew– and that they didn't have a memory of "finding it out.” I would normalize an embryo donation along the same lines. My kids also have two homes along with step siblings, and extended family through marriage– so a dynamic and creative family structure is already something they are familiar with.