Eileen's Story

“I really wanted to help them build a family,”...Eileen's Story

Eileen Stein understands what it is like to struggle with infertility both personally as a patient and professionally as a mental health professional. It took her and her former husband three years to get pregnant with their daughter, who was conceived through IVF. Three frozen embryos remained from this attempt.

When her daughter was two and a half years old, Eileen and her husband decided to divorce. The fate of her frozen embryos was an issue she considered seriously and she received custody of them in the divorce agreement. Says Eileen: “I worked really hard to create the embryos through treatment. They were like my babies. I even might have considered using them to get pregnant again if I had remained a single mother without being in a relationship.”

But after Eileen developed her relationship with her new partner, she felt she could not have a child with her former husband’s genetic material. However, she felt really strongly about not wanting to give away the embryos anonymously.

Eileen did not take the next step until she found the Miracles Waiting Web site. There she learned about the open embryo donation process, where she could get to know potential prospective parents and choose who would receive her embryos. Still she was not quite ready to move forward. It took another few years before she posted her profile on its Web site. She was contacted by many people. Amongst a variety of things Eileen hoped to find in an embryo recipient, Eileen, who is Jewish, hoped to find someone who was Jewish.
 
Eileen found the perfect match for her embryos in a New York couple who were compatible with her in many ways. “I really wanted to help them build a family,” said Eileen. “They had tried the gamut of treatments for over five years, from trying to conceive their own genetic child through assisted reproductive technologies to using donor eggs.” The couple flew to Seattle, where Eileen lives and where her embryos were frozen, for the transfer. Unfortunately, they did not get pregnant during this attempt. But as luck would have it, they got to know the staff at Eileen’s clinic, who referred them for an anonymous embryo donation. They became pregnant with twins and delivered a healthy boy and girl in early July 2009!

In Eileen’s practice as a psychotherapist specializing in helping infertile individuals, couples, and single moms by choice, she is counseling more individuals who are considering embryo donation. Her first-hand experience is especially useful for this. Eileen resolved the future of her frozen embryos and is really satisfied she followed that path, which ultimately led to another couple’s pregnancy.

Related articles: