It’s April, and Lisa places a hand on her belly, excited about being pregnant with twins. This is the second pregnancy via egg donation for the 42-year-old educator in Florida and she’s on a mission to help other women facing the same hurdles she did. Several years ago, Lisa was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease leaving her with no eggs at the time she wanted to start a family with her husband. In 2008, when her son was born, she didn’t know about Parents Via Egg Donation (PVED). When it came time for her to think about a second child, she didn’t think she could go through that process again.
“I felt so alone,” Lisa describes. “I felt like I was the only person in the world who had an egg donor to have a baby. People still don’t want to talk about it. A lot of women still don’t feel comfortable talking about it.” When Lisa reached out to someone seeking support, she learned about PVED, which she describes as the greatest gift. Through PVED, she heard about IVF New Jersey and their donor egg sharing program.