Would you pay $8,000 for a couple of eggs? How about if they resulted in a healthy baby instead of the most amazing breakfast on earth?
A female is born with about 1-2 million oocytes (potential egg cells), but only about 400 mature eggs are released during a woman's reproductive life. These microscopic eggs may not look like much, but to reproductively challenged couples and fertility clinics around the world, they may as well be made of gold.
Egg donors generally receive between $3,000 and $8,000. Throw in good looks and high SAT scores and clinics will pay up to $25,000 or more. But before you start seeing yourself as the goose who can lay golden eggs, you need to qualify first (and it's not easy). Candidates must have a squeaky clean health record and generally be between 20 and 30 years old. They have to take countless genetic and psychological tests, and meet the Food and Drug Administration requirements for tissue donors (which includes no tattoos or body piercings or past residence in various foreign countries). And that's just to get listed on the registry!
Once donor makes it through the selection process, she must undergo weeks of hormone injections to synchronize her menstrual cycle with the recipient's and to stimulate her ovarian follicles (where the eggs are developed) before the eggs are harvested.
Many female college students are young, bright, and broke, and ad agencies are well aware of this. They frequently place ads for egg donors in college papers across the nation, tempting these young women facing daunting student loans and low checking accounts. Driven by debt, these women are often misled and uninformed about the health risks that can come with donating eggs (including infection at the injection site, risk of organ puncture, and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome).
Despite the risks donors face, clinics have seen a surge in egg donor numbers (thanks to a shaky economy). In 2008, the number of egg donors increased 30%. If you are considering this procedure, remember that there will be a baby out there that has half of your DNA. Make sure you ask yourself these questions (pdf) before making a decision, talk to your doctor about the health risks for you, and to thoroughly research any fertility clinic you are considering.
-Lauren
$25,000 is a lot of money...but I still don't think I'd go through with all the risks that you listed. Plus, it's hard for me to think that I would have a biological child out on the world somewhere. Science is pretty incredible, though.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Ethics Committee guidelines defines reimbursement over $10,000 as exceeding what is appropriate, but as the entry shows, clinics are willing to pay donors much more. I agree, I am always amazed at how fast medical science is progressing!
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