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In Competitive Marketplace, Asian Egg Donors in Demand
Regina Joyner hoped for a sibling for Kayla.
(By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)
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Now they are trying to save money, so the egg donation plan is off. Regina Joyner, a lab technician, is trying acupuncture in hopes of rekindling her own fertility. If that fails, the Joyners plan to adopt a baby in China.
"I would love to be pregnant," said Regina Joyner, a petite woman with a broad smile. "If it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be."
Some say the supply-demand gap comes down to marketing and language. Clinics and agencies usually place donor ads in mainstream, English-language publications. Many clinics have staffs that speak only English.
Some new ventures are tapping into the need. Satty Gill Keswani, a Livingston, N.J., physician, recently began working with New Delhi clinics to find donors for Indian patients. By flying to India, they can find donors from their own caste and region.
"A Punjabi couple would want a Punjabi donor," Keswani said. "A Bengali from Calcutta would want a Bengali donor."
Serena, a New York City student from China, was surfing the Internet when she saw an ad for an egg donation agency. Allured by the compensation, she contacted a New Jersey broker called Asian Egg Donation.
Serena, 28, spoke to Helena Qi, who is Chinese. Qi, who had worked in fertility clinics, launched an agency targeting Chinese donors this year. Persuaded in part by Qi's Chinese language skills, Serena signed up. She said she is now motivated by altruism. But she has yet to tell her family in China.
"Chinese people pay very much attention to the blood relationship," Serena said. "They think that's a very, almost sacred thing. So they cannot allow that their blood is somewhere else."
Helen, a Chinese immigrant, worked with three clinics and four donor agencies in a nearly two-year search for a Chinese donor. Three months ago, with a bit of regret, the Hoboken, N.J., resident and her husband settled on a Caucasian donor whose profile said she had a Chinese grandfather.
Then Helen's husband spotted an Asian Egg Donation Internet ad. They have since switched to a Chinese American donor and are thrilled.
"In a way, she kind of looks like me a little bit. But she's better-looking than me," Helen, 44, said with a laugh. "That's the good part."
