“Let’s Talk About Egg Donation” – An egg donation guide for parents The Center for Surrogate Parenting (CSP) believes there’s more than one way to build a family – and each one is beautiful. With more women and men turning to family-building tools like surrogacy and egg donation, there’s a need for a surrogacy and egg donation guide. The team at CSP helps walk intended parents through the surrogacy process, while a new book from Carole LieberWilkins and Marna Gatlin is providing the egg donation guide that the world needs. We talked with Carole LieberWilkins about “Let’s Talk About Egg Donation” and how she hopes it will help intended parents. Changing lives with an innovative egg donation guide LieberWilkins is a therapist who has been practicing for more than 30 years. Early in her career, she counseled many clients who were pursuing adoption. When egg donation became more prominent, she started working with more clients exploring this family-building method. The authors decided to write “Let’s Talk About Egg Donation” because they saw a need for a comprehensive egg donation guide. “People just kept asking for it. They would come to me and say, ‘Isn’t there a guide I can read?’” LieberWilkins explains. To address this need, the authors created a book to mimic many of the topics that LieberWilkins discusses with her clients. It starts by explaining how to cope with an infertility diagnosis and how to grieve losing the dream of having a biological child. It then goes on to talk about selecting an egg donor and conceiving with donor eggs. The egg donation guide doesn’t stop there. It includes age-appropriate scripts to help parents explain egg donation to their children. It also weaves in stories from young adults who were conceived using egg donation. “It’s important to show the beautiful and intricate tapestry that we create when we stop thinking that family requires a genetic connection,” LieberWilkins says. The hope for “Let’s Talk About Egg Donation” Traditionally, people haven’t talked openly about egg donation. According to LieberWilkins, “This relates partially to the stigma around infertility. Additionally, until about 50 years ago, experts recommended keeping adoption a secret. Some of this secrecy has carried over into egg donation.” LieberWilkins and Gatlin want to create more honesty and openness when it comes to egg donation. “Secrets are toxic, and the truth always has a way of coming out, so it’s best to be honest and open from the beginning,” LieberWilkins says. The authors also hope the book serves as a helpful egg donation guide. Their goal is for it to help intended parents move from the devastation of an infertility diagnosis to the pride and excitement of having a child through egg donation. Contact us if you would like to learn more about how to talk about topics like surrogacy and egg donation. Honesty is always the best policy and we’re here to help.