Women at risk donating eggs

By Rebecca Hagelin
The Washington Times
Sunday, January 9, 2011

Excerpt:
Our young women need to know the truth.

Egg donation exploits young women for the benefit of older women. The fertility business needs an increasing supply of "donor eggs" from healthy, fertile young women. The pitch? Money. Students and young women don't have much, but many older infertile couples do. Donor agencies place ads in university newspapers or on craigslist.com, promising anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000 to women who donate eggs. Repeat donations (up to six) are encouraged. Economically vulnerable young women face an undue temptation to trade their eggs for money.

Egg donation itself carries significant risks because it requires fertility drugs, anesthesia, and invasive egg retrieval. Donors take drugs first to induce temporary menopause, then to hyperstimulate the ovaries so they'll produce from 16 to 35 eggs in one cycle. Worse, doctors really don't know the long-term risks to egg donors, because so few studies have been done. And fertility specialists are in no hurry to find out.
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