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Sign of recession? Egg donor applicants on the rise

Categories: Just for moms, In the news

Times are tough. Gas is expensive, which in turn means everything has a higher price tag, while salaries remain the same or jobs are downsized. What's a person with a family and bills to do to make ends meet?

According to a recent article in CNN, one option more women are turning to is donating eggs for profit at fertility clinics, where egg donor compensation can range anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000.

This seems like a pretty staggering sum until one considers all that is required:

  • A donor must first undergo a battery of psychological and physical exams, a process that can last from 30 to 40 days and eliminates 90 percent of applicants.
  • When selected, the donor starts three weeks of hormones injections to promote egg production.
  • There are also blood tests and up to 10 visits to the fertility center for ultrasound monitoring. "It is such a long, agonizing process," an egg donor named Michelle said. "It's six to eight weeks of poking and probing and blood work."
  • A minor surgical procedure called a transvaginal ovarian aspiration is used to retrieve the eggs and may require a couple of days of recovery for the donor.

After all the procedures, poking and pain, the donor gets a decent-sized check and the good feeling that they are providing another couple with the possibility of having their own family.

Helping infertile couples is terrific, but I'd always have the niggling thought in the back of my mind that the girl my son was dating could possible be my biological daughter from one of those donated eggs. Stranger things have happened.

Would you ever consider donating eggs?

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