Couple placed newspaper advert for egg donors

A woman has placed an advert in a local newspaper in a bid to find an egg donor.

Diane Smith, 44, who is currently waiting to begin IVF treatment at the CARE Fertility Clinic in Northampton, placed an advert which read, 'We have been trying for a family for a long time but now we need to find an egg donor. Could you be that special person to help our dreams of a family come true?'

Mrs Smith, who has had two failed pregnancies and experienced difficulties in conceiving due to a fallopian tube being removed, said: 'My husband and I have everything we could want apart from a child. I want desperately to be a mum and I want the child to be my husband's'.

Dr Rahnuma Kazem, medical director at CARE Northampton, said the use of adverts is rare, but it could help speed up the process for some women.

'If a woman is very keen to have a baby as soon as possible we can place an ad with a code name so we know a response is to that person. It allows eggs to go directly to her and cut out the waiting time', he said.

Egg donation is an option for women who have experienced early menopause, chemotherapy and other problems causing long-term damage to eggs. But donations have steadily decreased over recent years due to a change in the law introduced by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in 2005. This removed donor anonymity, allowing children to trace their biological parents when reaching 18 years of age.

Karen Faulkner, donation co-ordinator at CARE Northampton said: 'We are seeing a national shortage of eggs and numbers have been in decline since the changes to the law lifting donor anonymity. But demand is rising all the time as people became more aware of egg donation as an option'.