Diana Thomas is the Founder and CEO of The World Egg and Sperm Bank. After having to find her own egg donor in the early 1990s, and successfully becoming pregnant, fertility specialists began approaching Diana asking for her help in finding egg donors for their own patients, at a time when only one other egg donor agency existed in the U.S. She quickly discovered that there was a desperate need for a company that understood empowering recipients with information about egg donors, and the emotional sensitivity to navigate through the process of involving another person in their reproductive life.

Through her own personal experience, she created a company that catered to the needs of intended parents as well as brought the best quality of care to egg donors. For over 25 years, Diana’s egg donor agency, that evolved into The World Egg and Sperm Bank, has matched thousands of donors and couples nationwide and internationally. In 2004, she was one of three partners to start the first “frozen” egg bank in the world. Since then, The World Egg and Sperm Bank has increased egg donor options by shipping vitrified (frozen) eggs and sperm to recipients’ doctors around the globe, and as such, removed many geographic and emotional barriers for those who hope to one day have a child of their own.

The World Egg and Sperm Bank is the only egg bank worldwide that focuses solely on egg and sperm donors, and the only bank that has full operational control in its own state of the art facility to manage all donor cycles, retrievals and egg and sperm freezing from one lab, and one location. This is a unique powerful benefit in managing quality control, and the data outcomes reflect the focus and efforts to continually improve pregnancy outcomes.

Listen as Diana discusses with Ellen and Jenn:

• After over 20 years of fertility treatments, working to find an egg donor on her own before egg donation was fully available.

• Finding a potential donor, meeting her family, creating her own contract, and being in the room during the retrieval!

• Finding out she only had a 12% chance of the embryo taking; transferring two and experiencing a disappearing twin.

• How her son was one of the first 100 children born via egg donation.

• Having triplets take, losing one, then delivering twins at 29 weeks.

• How her second donor had complications getting pregnant and Diana was able to help her!

• Finding ways to improve the egg donation process.

• Being 100% open to allowing visitors to walk through their facility and see the process firsthand.

Meet Brian Rosenberg, founder of Gays With Kids and creator / head coach of GWK Academy, the only-one-of-its-kind App designed specifically to help gay and queer men become dads.

Brian has more than 25 years of sales and marketing experience, but his real passion has been the creation of Gays With Kids, the one-stop destination for gay, bi and trans dads and dads-to-be.

Brian and his husband Ferd became first-time dads in 2009, creating their family through adoption and surrogacy. At the time, there were few resources available to help queer men become dads, and even fewer for those who already were, so they launched GWK in March 2014.

Together since 1993, the secret to this couple’s longevity is Ferd’s prowess in the kitchen and Brian’s great appreciation for anything his husband cooks!

Listen as Brian discusses with Ellen and Jenn:

• Living with HIV and meeting his husband.

• Deciding after many years together that they wanted children.

• Falling instantly in love with the first infant they met for adoption; but hitting obstacles.

• Looking into surrogacy after birth mother changed her mind.

• When sperm washing became an option, finding new hope that they could become genetic parents.

• Signing up with a surrogacy agency, but then getting the call that a baby was available for adoption!

• Finding a wonderful surrogate and transferred two embryos… both took!

• How Brian and his husband experienced the public’s view of two dads; frequently hearing “where’s mom?”

• Spreading awareness of their fatherhood journey.

• Launched “Gays With Kids” to help create a community for dads!

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Learn more about Gays With Kids here: https://gayswithkids.com

Episode 157: Empowerment Through Advocacy – Lisa Rosenthal and Ryan Ferrante by I Want to Put a Baby in You!

Adrienne Black is passionate about surrogacy and helping grow families in a heart-based, ethical, and exceptional way. Adrienne has been involved in surrogacy for over 20 years. Besides her original profession as a midwife, she has also been a surrogate (four times for three families, resulting in six babies!), a legal assistant in a surrogacy law firm, and the last 11 years as an agency owner.

Adrienne founded and runs the largest online group for surrogacy professionals in the world, and is actively involved in the Society for Ethics in Egg Donation and Surrogacy, the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, and other local family-building organizations.

Adrienne says her whole heart is with surrogacy.

Listen to Adrienne discuss with Ellen and Jenn:

• How Adrienne became interested in surrogacy.

• Traditional surrogacy (and her preference not to use the term “genetic surrogacy”) versus gestational surrogacy.

• Her experiences as a gestational surrogate.

• Working as a legal assistant and starting her own surrogacy agency.

• Her agency’s support for both traditional surrogacy and gestational surrogacy.

• Focusing on protecting the surrogate and intended parents throughout the process.

• Offering education for surrogates to make an informed decision on what type of journey they want.

• The preference of some international families for traditional surrogacy.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Learn more about Heart To Hands Surrogacy: www.hthsurrogacy.com

Marna Gatlin is an egg donation and embryo donation industry professional, and a patient advocate with a specialty in open egg donation and open embryo donation. She works to educate, support, and empower individuals in forming or adding to their family. With over 20 years as an infertility and donation professional, many refer to her as the “go to” person regarding all things egg donation and embryo donation.

Marna works with an amazing network of third-party experts. Her peers and professional colleagues would describe her as a creative-strategy problem solver and a detail-oriented team player with the proven ability to lead. “Facilitator” is her middle name! Regardless of whether you are an intended parent or an industry professional, she is always willing to roll up her sleeves and assist with the challenge at hand.

Listen to Marna as to this Part 2 discussion with Ellen and Jenn about:

• Being able to go into the next phase of her life, becoming a mother.

• Being told by a priest that her child would not be accepted by the Catholic Church, because the child was conceived from IVF and egg donation.

• Seeking out a different priest and finding comfort in their words.

• Deciding not to baptize her child as an infant, allowing her child to choose for themselves.

• How PVED came about.

• PVED’s mission to educate, support, and empower families and individuals at any stage of the process considering egg donation in family building.

• The importance of telling children about their donor conception story and helping intended parents through that process.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Learn more about Parents Via Egg Donation: https://www.pved.org/

Marna Gatlin is an egg donation and embryo donation industry professional, and a patient advocate with a specialty in open egg donation and open embryo donation. She works to educate, support, and empower individuals in forming or adding to their family. With over 20 years as an infertility and donation professional, many refer to her as the “go to” person regarding all things egg donation and embryo donation.

Marna works with an amazing network of third-party experts. Her peers and professional colleagues would describe her as a creative-strategy problem solver and a detail-oriented team player with the proven ability to lead. “Facilitator” is her middle name! Regardless of whether you are an intended parent or an industry professional, she is always willing to roll up her sleeves and assist with the challenge at hand.

Listen to Marna as she discusses with Ellen and Jenn:

• The origination story of Parents Via Egg Donation.

• Her hopes and dreams of becoming a mother, but nothing going as planned.

• Meeting a parent who conceived through egg donation.

• Getting her dream doctor by pure luck!

• Having a difficult and scary pregnancy, but delivering a health boy at 39 weeks.

• Her original expectations as to her donor.

• Her son asking to meet the donor, and working to support his request.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Learn more about Parents Via Egg Donation: https://www.pved.org/

Lila Newberry Bradley is a partner in the law firm of Claiborne|Fox|Bradley|Goldman, which focuses its practice on family building through adoption and assisted reproduction. Lila is a Fellow in American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and the Georgia Council of Adoption Lawyers. Lila attended the University of Georgia for both undergraduate and law school.

Lila is the former director of the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation’s Children’s Law Programs where she worked with volunteer lawyers to provide pro bono legal representation for children who were in foster care or were the subject of high-conflict custody disputes. Lila continues to have a special interest in the legal issues surrounding children in foster care, and she provides training to foster parents on how the law and the court process can ensure that children’s rights and interests are protected.

Listen to Lila as she discusses with Ellen and Jenn:

• Starting her legal career in corporate transactions.

• Stepping away from work to focus on raising her family.

• A chance meeting leading her to work in child welfare law and foster care.

• 10 years working with foster care cases, including those that moved to adoption.

• Why the question “Why don’t you just adopt?” is so problematic.

• A little history. How the Baby Boom impacted adoption and the “Baby Scoop” era.

• The cost of adoption, ranging from $10,000 to over $75,000.

• The multi-step, and frequently lengthy, adoption process.

• Varying state adoption laws.

• The risk and likelihood of a change of mind.

• How the genetic father’s involvement can affect the potential of adoption.

• Open versus closed adoption and the historical shift.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Learn more about Lila’s law firm: www.gababylaw.com

Eric Mobley, 28, is donor conceived. He resides in Louisville, Kentucky with his husband,

Jeremy, and 1 year old Yorkie, Ellie. Eric did not discover he was donor conceived until he was

26 years old and received a 23&Me kit for Christmas. Eric works in higher education admissions

and loves anything Disney related.

Listen to Eric as he discusses with Ellen and Jenn:

 Eric has new 23&Me results!

 Finding more siblings.

 His relationship with his Donor taking an unexpected turn.

 Working through the trauma.

 Offering support for his new siblings.

 Facing triggers, anxiety, and depression.

 Becoming more accepting of his parents’ decisions.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-

1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Learn more about DNA results: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/blog/2021/9/14/episode-123-

your-dna-guide-diahan-southard-and-jayne-ekins

Learn about We Are Donor Conceived Magazine:

https://www.wearedonorconceived.com/magazine/

Mark Mellinger handles all marketing and public relations functions for the NEDC and is also in charge of development efforts. His background consists of almost three decades in broadcast journalism. From 2011 to 2018, Mark served as a contributor to The Gospel Coalition, one of the world’s largest Christian websites, where he helped start TGC’s podcast operations.

The National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) has facilitated more embryo donations, and births from embryo donation (nearly 1250), than any organization in the world. NEDC’s mission is to protect the lives and dignity of human embryos by promoting, facilitating, and educating about embryo donation.

Listen to Mark as he discusses with Ellen and Jenn:

• NEDC’s size and history.

• The term “Embryo Adoption” instead “Embryo Donation” as NEDC’s preferred language.

• The NEDC’s internal rules requiring of recipients that:

o they be a heterosexual couple;

o they have a home study by an accredited organization; and

o the female recipient be 46 years or younger and able to carry a pregnancy.

• If three cycles does not result in a child, recipients must return the embryos to the NEDC.

• The consideration of who receives embryos and their proximity across the US.

• Allowing selection and use of embryos with certain genetic markers or mosaicism.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Learn more about the NEDC here: https://www.embryodonation.org

Sasha became a mom at the age of 19 and a single mother at age 23 after leaving a toxic situation. She met the love of her life in 2018 and is now happily married. Sasha and her husband have been struggling to grow their family for a few years and her daughter is impatient, asking for a sibling. Their family of three humans and two dogs enjoy traveling, trying new restaurants, and spending time with family. Her fertility journey includes everything from teen pregnancy to egg donation, and now infertility.

Listen to Sasha as she discusses with Ellen and Jenn:

• Giving her parents the news of her pregnancy at the age of 18.

• Her father offering to adopt her child.

• Coming across a Facebook ad to donate eggs.

• Deciding to donate after watching her parents struggle with infertility.

• Completing three total cycles, two for the same couple.

• Experiencing a terrible third retrieval -- they counted 80+ eggs but only retrieved 33, leaving her to pass the rest.

• Meeting her now husband and explaining how she could have children out there from her egg donations.

• The inadvertent way her parents found out she was an egg donor.

• Experiencing a miscarriage in early 2022 and waiting to get in with a specialist.

• Colorado offering insurance-covered fertility access in large group market come January 1, 2023.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/