Building Your Family: The Complete Guide to Donor Conception

Lisa Schuman, Mark Leondires

$30.00

Publication Date: November 14th, 2023

Publisher:

St. Martin's Essentials

ISBN:

9781250868268

Pages:

320

Usually Ships in 1 to 5 Days

Description

Building Your Family is the first all-inclusive guide by experts to cover both the medical and emotional aspects of becoming a parent through donor conception.

Once shrouded in secrecy, modern families built with the assistance of egg or sperm donation are growing in numbers and voice. As more people see friends, family members and celebrities use donor conception to build their families, the process has become much more mainstream and accepted. The number of donor sperm programs and egg banks have grown enormously in the past decade and the news is full of stories of athletes, journalists, and entertainers like Elton John, Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen, Camille Guaty, and Natalie Imbruglia, who have used donor gametes to have their children.

The authors, Lisa Schuman, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist, and Dr. Mark Leondires, a board certified Reproductive Endocrinologist, have decades of experience working closely with patients who have chosen to use donated eggs and sperm, as well as their own personal stories of fertility treatment and non-genetic parenthood.

Together, they walk readers through the medical, emotional, and genetic aspects of donor conception, common ethical dilemmas, managing relationships with friends and family members, ways to tell donor-conceived children about their origins, and strategies to cope with the challenges of fertility treatment.

In a compassionate and authoritative narrative, they help hopeful parents-to-be find their way forward with confidence and joy.

About the Author

LISA SCHUMAN, LCSW, is a family building expert, award winning researcher, and therapist. She was the only mental health professional chosen to testify to the State Senate Judiciary Committee on the subject of legalizing compensated surrogacy in New York and is often called upon to lecture at corporations, schools and advocacy groups. As the founding Director of The Center for Family Building, she guides people around the world to build the families of their dreams. Ms. Schuman lives in Connecticut with her husband and three children.

MARK LEONDIRES, MD, is the Founder and Medical Director at Illume Fertility and the Founder of Gay Parents To Be, a leading family-building resource for the LGBTQ+ community. Dr. Leondires resides in Connecticut with his partner and their two children.

Praise for Building Your Family: The Complete Guide to Donor Conception

"Coming out publicly about my path to motherhood has opened communication between me and others battling infertility. I speak to women everyday who are at different stages in their journey. This book spoke to my past self as well as my life now as a Donor Conceived Parent. At this stage, so many couples are struggling with disclosure. In Building Your Family, Schuman and Leondires help you navigate your family narrative and provide simple, yet necessary ways to tell your child about their origin story. This book is priceless." - Camille Guaty, Actress and Donor-Conception advocate

"This book provides the comfort needed when faced with obstacles and the motivation to know donor conception is possible and can be successful. As the CEO of Family Equality, we ensure LGBTQ+ people have the freedom to form their families whichever way they choose, and donor conception is often one of those choices. With the growing number of LGBTQ+ millennials planning to start or grow their families, it is critical we provide them with the resources required to make what can be an arduous journey easier. Lisa Schuman and Dr. Leondires have done this skillfully and with thoughtful representation of our community." - Stacey Stevenson, CEO, Family Equality

"This is an excellent book, written from the heart, filled with a treasure trove of information, critical to those preparing to build their families with assisted reproduction. A must-read for anyone considering donor conception." - Richard Paulson, MD, past President, ASRM

"In Building Your Family, Lisa Schuman speaks to the reader with a combination of compassion and expertise. The sections on single motherhood by choice reflect her understanding of this new kind of family and of the joys and challenges which SMCs face on their journey." - Jane Mattes, founder, Single Mothers by Choice

"This book is a must-have for anyone looking to simplify the complicated journey of family building." - Broadway Husbands

"I have been a therapist in the infertility field for 35 years and can honestly say that this book is a true gem for all those considering or pursuing building a family through any kind of donor situation. The combination of the authors being a highly experienced therapist and infertility specialist, who both built their families through non-traditional means, brings with it everything an individual or couple needs to know on their family-building journey." - Alice Domar, PhD, researcher, author of several books and leader in the field of Infertility