Building Your Family
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.
Learn More About Lisa Schuman
Lisa Schuman, LCSW, is a published author, licensed therapist, award-winning researcher and the only therapist chosen to testify before the State Senate Judiciary Committee to legalize compensated surrogacy in New York. Lisa is the host of the podcast, Building Your Family, author of the book, Building Your Family: The Complete Guide to Donor Conception. and creator of the Building Your Family community platform, the only expert-created education and support community designed to provide the latest tools and evidence-based guidance to help you become more informed at any point of your journey, from preconception through parenthood.
