Can You Make Money Donating Eggs?
If you’ve been around college campuses, chances are you’ve seen flyers advertising egg donation. You can make good money by donating your eggs if you’re a female, but there is a lot you should know about this process before you jump in.
How Much Money Can You Make?
Your first question may be how much money you’re talking about. You can get paid thousands of dollars for a single donation. It’s not uncommon to get as much as $10,000 for one donation. Along with payment, you may get reimbursed for expenses such as mileage to the clinic, airfare and expenses if you must travel to a retrieval site and free screening and medication costs for the process.
While this money may sound impressive, you won’t want to go running to sign up just yet. The process of getting to the point of payment can be quite lengthy. It’s a good idea to know what to expect so you’re prepared.
How to Become a Donor
Your first step will be applying to several egg donation agencies. You can compare it to applying for jobs or for colleges. You may get picked for more than one, just one or none at all.
You’ll need to meet certain basic requirements. For instance, you will need to be between 18 and 29 years old, though you may find some places that make exceptions. You should have a healthy BMI and no history of reproductive cancer in your immediate family.
Once you’ve met the basic requirements and have completed the paperwork, your profile will be put in the agency’s database. Even after you have been accepted, it can take some time to match you with the intended parents of the egg. They will look at your health, your physical appearance and your intelligence to determine if they want to get their child from your eggs.
The Donation Process
Once you have found an agency and signed a contract, you’ll be given medications you must take daily for several weeks. These drugs are designed to make more of your eggs mature. Normally, a woman produces multiple eggs each cycle but only one matures. With the hormone injections, as many as 10 to 20 can mature.
After taking the injections and being monitored for egg maturity, your eggs will be harvested at a donation clinic. This part of the process is quick, but you may have to fly to a clinic if you don’t live near one.
You’ll be paid after the eggs have been harvested. Many women do it once while others will go back and donate a second time or even more often.
There are concerns about the physical and emotional impact this process has on a person. You’ll want to consider the risks which are largely unknown because few studies have been done. You’ll also want to think about how you will feel knowing there is a child with your genetics but they belong to someone else.
If you decide egg donation is right for you, it’s a great way to make a few thousand dollars to improve your life while positively impacting someone else’s life too.
