New book by Ob/Gyn and mother by ovum donation explores the emotional aspects of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART)Kamuela, HI – (Release date TBD) - Starting a family is usually a time of great joy, but for tens of thousands of couples who try and fail repeatedly to achieve a successful pregnancy each year, the process of becoming parents can be emotionally devastating.

Today, medical science offers these couples a wide variety of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) as alternatives to adoption, including in vitro fertilization (IVF) without donor assistance, IVF with donor sperm or ova, traditional surrogacy, and use of a gestational carrier. The decision to try ART is seldom an easy one, and once the decision is made, there are many difficult questions to face: Should we tell family or friends about our struggles with infertility and our decision to try ART? If we find we need a donor, how should we choose one? Should we use a known donor or an anonymous one? How important is our child’s genetic link to me and to my partner? Should we tell our child about her genetic heritage, and if so, how and when? Should we tell others?

In Creating Life Against The Odds, The Journey from Infertility to Parenthood, Dr. Ilona Higgins explores these and related issues from her perspective as an Ob/Gyn who has counseled couples and delivered babies in a half dozen countries around the world, as well as from her perspective as a mother via ovum donation. She describes her own struggle to find answers to the difficult questions that accompanied her decision to use ART at age 49, and she includes the first hand accounts of dozens of couples and single mothers who turned to ART. She also includes the stories and comments of donors, surrogates, gestational carriers, and children born through donor assistance.

This extraordinary book combines up-to-date information on the science of ART, a road map through the emotional minefield that ART represents for many couples, and the inspirational stories of many couples and women who have negotiated that minefield. It includes a foreword by the Executive Vice President of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as appendices that describe the causes of infertility and the latest treatments, address ethical issues relating to ART, and suggest how to tell ART children their birth stories.