Egg donor can't have own baby

Egg donor can't have own baby

It's one of the biggest ironies. Ms Louise Milano once donated her eggs.

But now, when she wants to have her own baby, she can't.

At 44, Ms Milano is still childless and fears that her dream of having her own child is fading fast. She has spent more than £30,000 (S$60,000) on in vitro fertilisation (IVF) to no avail.

Some donors have even given their eggs, yet she can't conceive, the Daily Mail reported.

It's been 13 years since Ms Milano, then a vibrant young career woman in the prime of her fertility, donated her eggs to help a couple she didn't know have a child.

Whenever she sees a boy aged about 12 in the street, she finds herself staring intently at him, searching his face for any clues that he just might be her biological child - the son she has never met.

She tells the Daily Mail: "I would love him to contact me when he's grown up. I think of him so often, and when I see a boy of a similar age walking down the street, my heart flips."

Ms Milano was married and working as a high-flying estate agent when she made the decision to donate her eggs.

Over the next few weeks, she underwent treatment at the fertility unit at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London.

In November 1999, a surgeon removed 19 of Louise's eggs, to be shared between two couples undergoing fertility treatment.

In September the next year, she got the news that a baby was born, conceived from an egg she had donated.

In 2008 and in her 40s, she tried to have a baby of her own. But the doctor gave her bad news - the National Health Service doesn't give IVF treatment to those over 40.

Ms Milano is now considering adoption, having realised that despite her long-held dreams, she is unlikely ever to have a child of her own.

"All I want is to hold my own baby, and feel a little hand slipping into mine, or to hear a sweet voice call me 'Mummy'," she says.

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