Despite monetary lure, egg donation has consequences
You’ve heard the commercials on the radio, seen the advertisements on the back of the bus: Help a family, earn $10,000! Become an egg donor today!
Egg donation may seem like a quick, simple way to earn some serious cash. And being a college student with rent to pay and books to buy, it doesn’t seem like that bad of a trade off: money in exchange for eggs you probably don’t need to use any time soon.
But it is a far more intricate and complex process to donate your eggs than it is for a man to donate his sperm. More is required of you than ten minutes alone in a room with just a cup and a magazine.
The process requires you to be pumped full of hormones, it is highly recommended via in vitro fertilization, in order to increase your egg production.
If you think your boobs getting bigger because of the hormones in birth control pill was bad, think of the potential side effects of the increase of hormones from IVF.
Also consider how much more susceptible you are to getting pregnant, now with your ovaries cranking out as many as 20 eggs. Your sex life might be hindered by paranoia for the next month or so.
The operation to retrieve the eggs is also an uncomfortable and invasive process, taking it even a step further than a gynecologist appointment.
Imagine sitting with your legs in the stirrups while needles prod through your vaginal walls and at your ovaries to extract the numerous eggs your body was forced to produce.
Sounds like a good time, huh?
But what makes egg donation even more unappealing is the biased nature of the market itself. Egg donors are determined not on charitable factors, but rather on characteristics such as age, weight, education and race.
Prior to the egg donation process, potential donors are asked to fill out a questionnaire that asks all the important questions, like personal talents and hair texture.
It is made clear that if you are over the age of 30, are overweight or have not received a high school diploma, you are not eligible to donate your eggs. It also doesn’t help if you’re a lesbian.
We, after all, don’t want families receiving old, fat, stupid or queer eggs.
The egg donation process also has racist undertones, with black donors being turned away more often than white donors.
The eggs from a white donor are also valued higher and cost a heck of a lot more than the eggs from a black donor, even when both types of eggs are equally in demand.
And it might also be worthy to note that such consideration of appearance and behavior is hardly evident in sperm donation.
So, if you’re a skinny, straight, blonde college student who received an impressive score on your SAT, congratulations! You’re considered the cream of the crop as far as egg donation is concerned!
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Sara Fossum at sara.fossum@colorado.edu .
