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She could have been an egg donor during her first cycle, and all those embryos were created before any pregnancy had been established. This would explain how she could go back time and time again for embryo transfers, even as her family grew. If the eggs were all fertilized at the same time, and transfered for each pregnancy, then technicaly she has 14 all from the same litter, just born at different times. I don’t know what you call that, I only know up to 10 decaplets.</p>
<p>sunnyflrida and northeastmom, thanks for explaining. According to some reports, she is 33 years old. Of course, she could not be a donor past a certain age. So that was probably a single “litter” of eggs.</p>
<p>If she has a 7 year old, her donor cycle could have be 8 years ago and she would have been 25. Her mother is reporting that her tubes were blocked. There are many young women with no ability to pay for IVF who agree to be donors and have their own IVF cycle paid for in return for giving up some of their eggs. There may even be more of this women’s progeny out there. Sad for the original recipient to be wondering if this woman was her donor. While it was probably anonymous, if the doctor/clinic info comes out, and given that the news is alreay reporting exactly what is on the birth certificates of her other children, there are women out there who will be doing the math and wondering…</p>
<p>"THE single mother of octuplets born in California last week is seeking $2m (£1.37m) from media interviews and commercial sponsorship to help pay the cost of raising the children.</p>
<p>Nadya Suleman, 33, plans a career as a television childcare expert after it emerged last week that she already had six children before giving birth on Monday. She now has 14 below the age of eight.</p>
<p>Although still confined to an LA hospital bed, she intends to talk to two influential television hosts this week media mogul Oprah Winfrey, and Diane Sawyer, who presents Good Morning America.</p>
<p>Her family has told agents she needs cash from deals such as nappy sponsorship she will get through 250 a week in the next few months and the agents will gauge public reaction to her story…</p>
<p>Angela Suleman, who is caring for the first six children one of whom is autistic while her daughter is in hospital, said yesterday that she had consulted a psychologist over Nadyas obsession with children.</p>
<p>Nadya Suleman, who describes herself as a professional student living off education grants and parental money, broke up with her boyfriend before the birth of her first child seven years ago.</p>
<p>The identity of the octuplets father remains unknown, but local reports suggest they were conceived with frozen sperm donated by a friend she met while working at a fertility clinic. …"
[Octuplets’</a>; mother wants Oprah to turn her into a $2m TV star - Times Online](<a href=“http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5627531.ece]Octuplets’”>The Times & The Sunday Times: breaking news & today's latest headlines)</p>
<p>Here are some comments from fertility experts who are not happy with these 8. They mention that her care was likely not “with the help of a legitimate clinician” </p>
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[California</a> octuplets case dismays fertility experts - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090131/hl_nm/us_octuplets_fertility]California”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090131/hl_nm/us_octuplets_fertility)</p>
<p>I believe I called that.</p>
<p>THE single mother of octuplets born in California last week is seeking $2m (£1.37m) from media interviews and commercial sponsorship to help pay the cost of raising the children.</p>
<p>Check this out - on Friday her mother reported that she paid the $900,000 she owed for the two houses in Whittier. A downpayment from the National Enquirer?</p>
<p>[Octuplets</a>’ Mother ‘Obsessed with Children’, Wanted ‘One More Girl’](<a href=“404 - Page Not Found | KTLA”>404 - Page Not Found | KTLA)</p>
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<p>I think she SAID on Friday that “she had withdrawn the filing and paid her debts” as in Friday she was clarifying to reporters that the bankrupcy had been withrawn previously. I don’t think she had a check in hand on Friday to pay anything off. News media are infering in their reports that the grandmother walked away from the homes, turned them over to the bank, and somehow “settled” her debts. But not on Friday.</p>
<p>Well, that’s why she wanted initially to remain anonymous. Her agent was working out the deals. I am torn between hoping they all fall through and hoping that the National Enquirer will support her sufficiently to provide for the children. Better readers who believe in alien abductions than all taxpayers. </p>
<p>A question: if she were an egg donor, would the embryos belong to her? I always thought that a donor’s eggs were fertilized with the recipient’s husband’s sperm. In that case, wouldn’t they then belong to the recipient and her husband rather than to the donor (that is, without a court battle)? I hope there will be some serious investigation of how this occurred. If there is nothing illegal, there is likely medical malpractice. The harvesting of the eggs would require a physician, although I suppose she might have managed the rest herself after having worked in a clinic.</p>
<p>It is just mind boggling when so many infertile couples struggle so desperately for one or two healthy children that this woman is dropping litters. If it weren’t for the fact that producing 8 babies at once definitely requires medical assistance, I would think the whole thing was a hoax designed to bilk the credulous public.</p>
<p>OK here is backtracking if I ever saw it. A local CA paper is reporting that the grandmother is now saying …“that doctors implanted far fewer than eight embryos, but they multiplied.” While this can happen (quints, sextuplets etc can often include a set of identical twins), this same woman has repeated said that her daughter had eight embryos transferred. The story is changing already. It will be interesting to see if the true story comes out. </p>
<p>There is also a report that there is no current open investigation in CA into any practitioner or clinic over the transfer of 8 embryos. This could mean no complaint has yet been filed, or that the patient did not have the procedure in CA or even the US.</p>
<p>tango, I guess we’ll find the answers to our questions in the next issue of the Enquirer. :)</p>
<p>I know folks who have a lot of embryos stored in freezers. I don’t know how difficult it is to get them implanted once you have them harvested and put in storage. There are a lot of ethical issues there. Can the storage places just dispose of them without consent?</p>
<p>Tango 14, IVF clinics use two types of donors in an effort to assist women who either don’t have eggs, or who are older and whose eggs are not likely to result in a pregnancy. The first type of egg donor is paid to go through the process, and at the time of egg retrieval, all eggs are “given up” to the person who is paying the donor. The donor gets paid a sum in addition to having all her medical expsenses paid.</p>
<p>The second type of donor is a “shared cycle” donor. The couple/woman who need the eggs pays for the donors medical expenses. It is usually the case of a wealthy couple who pays for their own cycle and that of a couple who cannot affort IVF. The donor goes through the stimulation of eggs, and at the time of egg retrieval, the eggs are shared. The donor gets to keep a set number of eggs, and the donor donates a set number of eggs. The donor has her eggs fertilized with sperm from one sourse (usually her husband and in this case some random donor), and some are transferred to her uterus and some frozen. The receipient gets eggs to be fertilized by another source, generally her husband/partner and some are transferred to her uterus and some are frozen. In shared cycles, the ovaries are hyperstimulated, and 18-20+ eggs can result. Both parties end up with eggs/embryos.</p>
<p>When I was going through IVF, another woman produced 39 embryos in one cycle. So it is quite possible that this woman produced a large enough number that she was left with 14 or so herself. </p>
<p>Tango, not only does the harvesting of eggs require a physician (it is a minor surgical procedure that I underwent multiple times), but the production of embryos requires very sophisticated laboratory procedures, and cultivation for about 48 hours until they reach the 4 to 8 cell stage, when they are transferred to the woman’s uterus. Excess embryos can be frozen. Thawing the embryos and preparing them for transfer also require a specialized lab. This is not do-it-yourself stuff.</p>
<p>The storage places (the fertility clinics where the embryos were created) are not allowed to destroy the embryos as long as the storage fees are being paid. They may be required to transfer the embryos to the woman who “owns” them on demand, and may not be able to refuse to do so because the woman already has many children. But they certainly are not required to transfer 8 at once!</p>
<p>I guess it is remotely possible that they transferred 4 and they all split. But even transferring 4 in a woman with a demonstrated high likelihood of pregnancy would be irresponsible.</p>
<p>"OK here is backtracking if I ever saw it. A local CA paper is reporting that the grandmother is now saying …“that doctors implanted far fewer than eight embryos, but they multiplied.” While this can happen (quints, sextuplets etc can often include a set of identical twins), this same woman has repeated said that her daughter had eight embryos transferred. The story is changing already. It will be interesting to see if the true story comes out. "</p>
<p>It may be that the husbandless daughter who already had 6 kids lied to her parents about how she got pregnant with the octuplets. Her mother may just be reporting with the daughter says, and the D’s story may keep changing.</p>
<p>Seems so much easier to go with sunnyflorida’s idea that no fertility dr. needs to be involved - the girl goes to some group (here or a Dr across the border) or meets friends who will share or a dr who will prescribe…she takes the pills. Poor Mom and Dad have no idea, but she’s perhaps on their insurance. What do they do? This is your kid, acting out some mental strangeness but the result is your beloved grandchildren… What a horible situation all around.</p>
<p>They will make many, many millions. The more trashy the story is, the more they’ll make. Folks that made Jerry Springer and the Enquirer rich will eat the story up along with the rest of us!</p>
<p>Unbelievable. This one instance has turned morality, ethics, politics of all persuasions, upside-down-out, left-to-right. Whatever defense or offense one had, is now obsolete. Smart woman.</p>
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<p>This is mean, but I keep thinking that this idiot woman has now spread her genes to not just 14 offspring but possibly many others. Think of how many grandchildren and great grandchildren this one woman will have! Though apparently she is smart enough to earn a college degree, she shows a horrible lack of judgement and possibly mental illness, both of which have now been possibly passed on.</p>
<p>^The prior 6 kids were conceived in vitro.</p>