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Just thought I kick off this section.

I first heard about Renew from Tertia's web journal 'So Close'. Within 3 months of my very first enquiry we were off to South Africa - there was little time to get wound up about it all - which was great.

I really thought Renew were very professional, very attentive, very supportive and actually were quite lovely.

Having been through the DE process, I can appreciate how much the whole porcess could go wrong - but I felt that Renew - namely Robin and Vicky - kept everything on track and were just delightful really.

It made me confident that they were treating my donor with respect too - which was important for us. There were also no strict rules around anonymity and contact - recipients and donors were allowed to agree their own level of contact. We only produced 6 eggs and 4 embryos from our 21 year old donor - which I thought at the time was worryingly few - but on the other hand the donor was not put under any kind of stress to over produce - and managed to resume her normal life as quickly as possible after donation. This means that surely she - and others - are more likely to donate again - and I think the quality of the eggs benefitted too - as the cycle worked (I am currrently 7 weeks pregnant!).

I'm not quite sure about the value for money thing - it was our first egg donor cycle and I didn't really compare it to anything else on offer. It was very expensive for us as a package because we had to pay for a rather wonderful holiday in Cape Town as well - fantastic.

Dr le Roux - the main medic at the Cape Fertility clinic - was also very lovely (much better in person than he was in E-mail - when he is very to the point).

I am in two minds as to whether I'd go directly to CFC again to use their services and bypass Renew, which I now know is an option. I suppose it would be cheaper - but Renew made me feel very 'looked after' - I'm sure my donor felt the same.

I just came back from my cycle there, and Cathy at Renew was extremely attentive and supportive through the process. I also preferred the larger donor base than the clinic had, and the additional information and pics that Renew provided.

My only reservation is that the fee for the agency went from 3500 to 4500, with the 1000 change going to the donor. However, the clinic pays these donors and Renew had to shut down providing them additional compensation. However, the price did not go back down to the original 3500 and there's no good justification for the current pricing, especially considering the disparity between pricing in the states and in SA - with the exception of Renew's pricing. I didn't bring this up because I wanted to use them, wanted my donor, and didn't want to create any controversy. However, it was the only thing that bugged me but didn't deter me.

One other thing of note - I didn't have contact with the owner, Robin - just with Cathy, and Cathy was absolutely outstanding. I also feel very, very connected and positive regarding my donor.

As a donor I can tell you that I would rather not work with an agency at all if I could avoid it. The only reason for me to work with an agency is that I want to do open donation (not an option as a member of most clinic pools). Of course, independent is always an option but that limits the number of prospective IPs. So, what I am trying to say is that, given a good match with IPs, then I would work without the meddling extra cooks in the kitchen that is an agency.

Nugget