A Call to Protect the Health of Women Who Donate Their Eggs

Article from page 4 and 5 of the November/December Newsletter 2016

The egg market is growing. As couples and individuals continue to rely on assisted reproductive technology to overcome infertility, to make parenthood possible for gay people, and for other reasons, the demand for eggs is increasing swiftly.¹ Between 2000 and 2010, the number of donor eggs used for in vitro fertilization increased about 70 percent, from 10,801 to 18,306, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).²

And, although there are no exact figures for how many young women engage in egg-retrieval-for-pay, the numbers are at least in the thousands. Many of these women are in their early 20s —and are often university students who need cash to cover their tuition fees.³ But, most people don’t realize that there are no good long-term safety data that would enable these young women to make truly informed choices about selling their eggs.

Now, a number of women’s health and public interest advocacy organizations — including Our Bodies Ourselves, the Pro-Choice Alliance for 
Responsible Research, and the Center for Genetics and...