egg donation for Surrogacy question

[debblue]

Okay It must have been the massive thunder storm yesterday, first really big and beautiful one of the year, but I've got a real life question to ask about surrogacy/IVf. In the context of a lesbian couple could each donate eggs that can be implanted into same body either by IVF or through surrogacy so there is a chance if two take hold they could

Comments

[ext_1614268]

That's a fascinating question. I don't know for sure, but it seems possible to me.

[oh_nessa]

Yes theoretically possible.
Multiple pregnancies are common with IVF because the mother/surrogate is implanted with several zygotes to increase the chances of conception. So if there was a half/half split of zygotes (fertilised eggs) from mum 1 and mum 2 there would be equal chance of either implanting. It would be quite lucky to get one of each!
I'm not sure what the ethical/legal stance on this is, but from a medical (junior doctor) stance, it can be done.

[debblue]

thank you so much for replying, that helps a lot but do you mind if I ask another question?
why aren't donor eggs rejected by the body, I think the answer to this will help me get my head wrapped around why the body wont reject two, is it just the same type of scenario as non identical twins?
I know that sometime the babies blood group causes serious problems, which could led to blood transfusions/ premature births. Is there a pattern to this? certain blood types that automatically trigger this chain of events?

By the way thank you for your career choice, I am in awe of all of the people who make the choice of spending their lives helping others. It really takes a special kind of person who is willing to study long and hard and work even harder to care for others. well done and I hope you have a long and fulfilling career

[oh_nessa]

It's not a problem.
Any zygote already has half paternal DNA, so that is always foreign to mum, whether the other half is hers or that of a donor egg.
The problem would be if mum's immune system recognised the fetus as foreign and attacked it. This doesn't happen (in a regular pregnancy or in an egg donor pregnancy) for lots of reasons.
The placenta acts as a physical barrier, stopping any maternal immune cells from reaching the fetal tissue. It also secretes chemicals that confuses the material immune system, making it hard for it to detect the fetus as foreign tissue. It also lacks certain marker proteis that ordinarily alert the body to the presence of foreign material.
The immunology is very very complex and way beyond my understanding! But essentially the mother develops an immune tolerance of the fetus and since any baby is genetically different from its mother anyway, it wouldn't make a difference if it shared 0% DNA with the woman who carries it as opposed to the usual 50%.

Hope that helps!

[debblue]

you are totally amazing. Thank you so much for taking time to answer and in a clear, easy to understand way. Guess I need to start a story plan :)
please feel free to say no but if I have anymore medical questions or a story part that is swimming ( probably drowning, I haven't written in years) that is beyond my google research , could I run it by you?
Though I love Greys, mainly for Arizona/Callie, my first love is sci fi, lost girl def but love the idea that anything you can image can be possible so I really want this story to stay in the factual world so to speak. cheers again
Debbie

[i_fly_solo]

Hi there,

Sorry I'm so late in telling you about this (and, you know, actually doing it), but I just switched your tags. The "fanfic: help" tag is generally just for posts trying to find fanfiction or with specific questions about writing it. For things like this that don't have as much to do with Grey's (or Sara, Jessica, etc.), you should use the "comm: off topic" tag. I just changed it for you, but please feel free to ask the mods if you have questions in the future.

Thanks! Sorry again for the delay! :)

[debblue]

No, thank you for doing it, It is in a way a call for help with fan fic, I want to write a story alone these lines and do want a true medical background to it, even though I know you can live anywhere and anything your imagination decides

Eggaisiancy

[ext_3592769]

It's good to know that Asian egg donation is a significant life-giving act and the companies participating in this industry still have to operate with an economical mind-set.