Informed Consent for Egg Donors Won’t Exist Unless We Track Donors’ Health

Both a recent article in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics and a related Ob.Gyn. News story have raised concerns about the risks of egg donation and the process of providing informed consent for donors.

Despite guidelines from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, clinical and monetary pressures can create conflicts for providers of reproductive healthcare between the needs of the egg donors and those of the couples to whom their eggs are donated — both of whom are often patients of the same providers.

The articles raise concerns that these conflicts may result in donors having an incomplete understanding of the risks and ramifications of stimulation to produce multiple eggs and retrieval of those eggs for donation.

Egg donation is a commonly used assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedure accounting for more than 12 percent of ART cycles in the United States. Conflicts can arise on several levels: donor recruitment; screening, consent and disposition decisions; ovarian stimulation; and post-stimulation monitoring.

Recruitment can involve misleading advertisements, which may not accurately convey the...