They say, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and that is very true for Diana Thomas, founder and CEO of The World Egg and Sperm Bank, headquartered in Scottsdale. TWESB is the nation’s oldest and only woman-owned sperm and egg bank.
With International Women’s Day on March 8, and Women’s History Month observed throughout March, now is an important time to recognize the women who have helped shape Arizona, broken down barriers and paved the way for future generations.
Thomas is a local changemaker who not only revolutionized reproductive options in the Valley but continuously shares her incredible personal story, provides education for young women and innovates new programs to help women build their families.
Throughout her twenties and thirties, Thomas struggled with infertility. After 15 years of unsuccessful attempts to conceive, she concluded that she needed additional support to create her family. In the 1980s, reproductive resources were difficult to access and very limited, so Thomas went out on her own to find an egg donor.
After years of heartbreak, extensive research and determination, Thomas finally had her first child. This success represented one of the first 100 babies born from an egg donor in the nation. A few years later, she welcomed twin boys with the help of another egg donor.
During Thomas’ journey, there were few formal donor systems in place, little transparency and almost no support for women navigating the assisted reproductive process. Rather than close this chapter of her life, Thomas decided she needed to do something to ensure no woman had to endure this emotional process alone.
At 45 years old, Thomas made a bold and life-altering decision to leave her successful career managing large architectural restoration projects and build a better solution for families like hers. She established her first company to provide egg donors in 1996 to ensure there was a transparent and accessible option for women like her.
At its inception, TWESB had the bold goal of making egg and sperm donation and retrieval accessible, affordable and ethical, and in turn, create hope for thousands of families worldwide. Since its establishment, TWESB has supported thousands of local donors and helped more than 7,000 families worldwide conceive children from an ethical egg and sperm bank.
Thomas and TWESB is the leader in reproductive innovation and now serves infertile patients worldwide, and it all begins here, in Scottsdale, Arizona. TWESB recently created a way to make home insemination more affordable for families to attempt conception in their own homes. TWESB is also launching a new “Give and Receive” program this March to assist egg donors.
Give and Receive allows women to donate their eggs to intended parents and preserve their own eggs for future use at the same time. The service is provided at no cost. It also provides donors with valuable health information through comprehensive fertility testing and genetic screening.
Egg freezing can cost upwards of $15,000 per cycle, so this program was created to provide young women with an affordable family planning option while also giving the powerful gift of egg donation to those desperate to have a family.
The Give and Receive program, launching on International Women’s Day, is designed to empower women to take ownership of their reproductive timelines.
Women still face the challenge of balancing education, careers, personal goals, and postponing pregnancy, creating the need for a program intended to give participants greater control over when and how they want to conceive.
This new initiative, and many additional services offered at TWESB, from donation to home insemination, embryo creation, egg and sperm freezing, reflects Thomas’ life-long commitment to providing women and all TWESB donors and recipients’ accessible choices to control their reproductive care.
While many Women’s History Month stories focus on legacy alone, Thomas represents living history. She is a woman who opened doors and is still actively mentoring, leading and creating change.
In Arizona and around the world, thousands of children were born because of a woman who decided her fertility struggle would not be the end of the story, but the beginning of a reproductive healthcare transformation.
Caderina Carrizosa has served as the Chief Strategy Officer at The World Egg and Sperm Bank (TWESB) since 2023. She joined the organization in 2009 and has played an integral role in the growth of the organization contributing to innovative programs to advancing donor care and ensuring international safety standards are met every step of the way. Her expertise and vision continue to champion the organization’s growth and global impact.
