Lucrative side hustle?
With the cost of living often far exceeding the income of young adults, many young women are considering egg donation as a financial solution – and the appeal isn’t hard to understand.
My Egg Bank, a network of donor egg banks in North America, says their egg donors receive between $10,000 and $120,000, depending on their location and the number of donation cycles they complete.
As the comments on her video show, Juliana isn’t alone in her curiosity about the potential benefits of egg donation. In a 2021 article published by The Guardian, a former student at Columbia University’s School of Journalism recounted being shocked upon realizing the cost of her tuition would amount to $116,000. Although she managed to secure a scholarship, the significant cost of rent and living expenses led her to explore egg donation as a way to bridge the gap.
It turns out this is a common story. Diane Tober, an associate professor and medical anthropologist at The University of Alabama, surveyed over 700 U.S. egg donors and 36% cited educational expenses as the primary motivation for donation.
“Very few are taking the money for what we would consider to be frivolous items,” Tober shared with Forbes. “Most are using the money on the costs of being a student, including student loan debt.”
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Seeing egg donations as a get-rich-quick scheme ignores the potential risks.
Among the health risks to donors, the Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) lists ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which can be life-threatening in severe cases. They also mention procedural risks like pelvic infection, intraperitoneal hemorrhage, or ovarian torsion.
Research on the long-term effects for young women like Juliana remains very limited. Medical experts speaking to STAT News said “there’s no incentive for anyone to study the health risks to egg donors because the system as it now stands seems like a win-win-win: Fertility clinics get business, egg donors are well-compensated, and infertile couples have a better chance to conceive a baby.”
Donors may also one day find themselves tracked down by biological children – which can be done more easily nowadays with DNA tests like 23andMe. So while Juliana might have thought she was onto a lucrative side hustle, this may be one to reconsider.
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