The Book
Recently, Mark has co-authored the book, Building Your Family: The Complete Guide to Donor Conception. “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. In this book, he and Lisa Schuman, LCSW, set out to provide a resource to anyone seeking information about donor conception.
“Along the pathway to parenthood, choosing a donor might seem like a straightforward task, but there is nothing in the collective intelligence of humanity that ever prepares someone for that. Personally, I learned that being a parent is about the intent to love a child.” - Mark Leondires, MD
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.” -Macmillan Publisher
After working with thousands of donors, parents-to-be, and donor-conceived children, he and Lisa have compiled the information that they believe you are most interested in learning about in Building Your Family: The Complete Guide to Donor Conception. In doing so, they hope to save you hours of internet scrolling and sleepless nights not knowing where to find the answers you need, and perhaps even to help you minimize your stress and conflicts with your loved ones. This is the book they wish they’d had when they were building their families.
This book provides everything you need to know about all the medical processes, the important facts and variables you need to consider when choosing a donor, the important ways you can prepare your body for pregnancy, and other hard facts. You’ll also learn tips and strategies for managing emotional challenges that come with this process: managing the pain of infertility, letting go of old goals in favor of new ones, pre- paring for single parenthood, learning how to choose your donor, dealing with family and friends, handling difficult ethical dilemmas, disclosing to your future child, and more.
The information and advice are based on the latest research available, but they also share their personal experiences. This is their passion—they’ve devoted their careers and lives to it. They wish there had been a manual to help them through their journeys. That’s why they wrote this book. They hope it will be your manual.
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.
