Harvest Them Eggs!

[killerangel.livejournal.com]

So, I saw this ad in the paper about donating your eggs for $3000. Does anyone know anything about this? How many eggs will they take? Do I have to pay for my operation with the $3000? Everyone I've talked to about it says, "But there will be a little YOU out there somewhere!" I say that's ok, I want to help someone who wants a child to have one...which is my blanket excuse for actually just wanting $3000...but seriously. If anyone has experience with this egg donation, let me know!

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I have a hard time with it, as there are currently so many kids without good parents. I'd rather see one of them get a home.

[yruugrrl.livejournal.com]

Generally the deal is that the operation is covered by the people who are getting your eggs, and the $3000 is to cover your "time and inconvenience" as it's illegal to sell body parts. You have to take fertility drugs for awhile so that your body will produce a lot of eggs the next cycle, and those are usually administered to you BY you via a daily injection. You then go in to have the eggs harvested, and there are two ways to do that. (1) Go in through your stomach (2) Go in through your vagina. Either way sounds unpleasant, but I've never done it, and general anesthesia can be quite fun, actually. They will take all of the eggs that you "produced" that cycle (i.e. that were ripened and release from the ovaries) which could be in the thousands. I have my doubts about helping people have kids when there are so many children that need help in the world, but I'd be hypocritical if I didn't tell you that I seriously considered doing it myself when I was in college to help pay the bills. Hell, I'm still considering it...I'm just a wussy and afraid of needles. Boo. But make sure you know what you're doing, whatever you decide.

BTW, if you go through a private egg-donation agency and have the right qualifications, you can get up to $25,000 for the deal. It helps to be tall, cute, and have good SAT scores (no joke!). But shop around...$2000 is the low end. It IS your body, after all. You should get the best price.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

My friend went through multiple iterations of trying to extract eggs for her own IVF process, and the most she ever got (with hormone stimulation) was 20, I think. Keep in mind, in a normal month, you only get one egg (or *maybe* two).

I plan on doing some donating, myself. I see it as a way to help people like my friend, who really wanted to carry a child to term and have it be genetically linked to at least one of the parents. But I'm also poor, so that is a factor.

The normal pay in Boston is $3,000 to $5,000, by the way.

[yruugrrl.livejournal.com]

Hehe...ok, so maybe "thousands" was an exaggeration. I do know that they can't pay you based on the egg extraction...they have to pay you the same whether they get 2 or 200. I know that if you have a certain genetic background (i.e. Jewish or similar rare heritage) you can get more money.

[resilientpewter.livejournal.com]

They're generally HIGHLY selective - much much much more so than for sperm donations.
IE, they don't care the IQ or SAT score or parents' medical history if you want to donate sperm but all of that counts to be an egg donor.

Good luck with it anyway. I know I personally would not be eligible because my father has weight-related diabetes. Apparently, that means my eggs are defective in some way and therefore not wanted. Poor my someday-children who will come from those defective eggs...

[sweet-liberty.livejournal.com]

I've considered it, dunno if I'd be eligible but I have three really cute kids ..of course, thats probably my husbands doing hehe. My only reasons for not doing it would be that I'd worry there might be complications and I'd bleed out and die trying to make a few bucks ..if I'm gonna risk something being yanked outta me then I'm going in for that Carnie Wilson stomach thing instead.

I'd also worry that they'd do something icky with my eggs like cloning or something ..my mother always said she was glad their wasnt two of me.

[fifthconundrum.livejournal.com]

If they are "highly selective", does that mean certain groups would have trouble being approved for egg donation? For instance, I am African-American. Would they be more likely to not approve me for that reason, despite my mensa-qualifying scores on IQ and standardized tests?

[lizzvoltage.livejournal.com]

...Why, oh why, do you assume that African-American eggs would be at the bottom of the "desireable" chart? Don't you think that's kind of racist?

[fifthconundrum.livejournal.com]

I'm not assuming they will be; I am asking if they will be. And yes, it would be racist for someone to not admit me to an egg-donor program because I am African-American. But the fact of the matter is there are racist people out there, so I would like to know if that attitude is prevalent amongst the people running egg-donation clinics.

[jujukoo.livejournal.com]

My mom was doing a paper on egg donations for a college class she's taking, and in the process of editing it I picked up something... The majority of people seeking egg donations in the private sector of egg donation clinics are usually middle- to upper-class Caucasian Americans seeking desirable genetics for potential offspring. However, I guess one can be lucky in searching in the private sector... Hey, there might be an African-American couple searching for an egg donor, willing to pay boatloads of money for MENSA genes. :)

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Can I suggest you do some careful research on the risks of the hormone treatment and operation before you sign up?

[daienaria.livejournal.com]

This is what I was going to bring up - I was under the impression that they use fertility drugs to induce the development and release of multiple ova, but many fertility drugs aren't particularly safe to use - the health risks may outweigh the idea of getting $5,000 now. Cancer, for one, is one of the more common risks that I know of.

Just so long as you're aware of what you're getting yourself into, it's up to you - but I would recommend you do some serious research into what sort of drugs they use, what the hormonal treatment is, how long you're to be on it, and just what the risks ARE, for anyone and for your own situation, before you make any sort of commitment.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

There was a death reported in this country recently (the hormone treatment caused a blood clot, I think).

[tonapah.livejournal.com]

An easy to understand explanation of what it's like to donate eggs:

http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/donateegg/donateegg.html