Donor Blog

Egg Donation in the Media

Why is it that the topic of egg donation seems to be taboo? Everyone is nervous to talk about it with friends and family, especially us Asians. Here is a list of reasons why I think people feel so uncertain about it:

  • It's never discussed in the media openly.

  • Whenever you hear it mentioned on TV, it's always part of a negative joke. This came from an episode of NBC's Community. FEMALE: "I was thinking of selling my eggs." MALE: "I'll give you some money, hold onto your eggs." It made me shudder to hear the word "sell." And then again when the response made it sound like it was something she will lose permanently. It was so misguiding, but that's what gets planted into our heads too often.

  • In China and India, even the topic of adoption is a taboo subject. Surrogacy in China is illegal. Egg donation in Japan is illegal (making Japanese donors some of the toughest to recruit).

  • The Vatican decided that egg donation is immoral. Who decided? A group of men who gave up the right to have children themselves. To them, if you can't do it naturally without science, you shouldn't have children at all. However, the Jewish faith accepts egg donation, so long as the egg donor herself is Jewish since the faith is passed to the child through the maternal line. Egg donors receive money for it - "too much" money. After reading my blog, you might understand that without some compensation for the inconvenience, time, and effort involved, finding any altruistic volunteers is too difficult. Canada, Australia, and England do not compensate donors and so having children via egg donation is near impossible there. In our country, there is a shortage of bone marrow and kidney donors - if they offered money, wouldn't you reconsider registering? There are some ads that people may see for egg donors offering $20,000 or $30,000 for one donation from an ivy league female with superstar physique. Most of these ads are actually ploys from unmonitored agencies to recruit donors and puts a bad image on the rest of the industry. Legitimate agencies who are members of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine have a max limit of compensating donors $10,000.

  • "We don't know anyone who has ever needed to use an egg donor." That's because those who have, never discuss it openly. They may not even let their own families know about it. In some cases, they may not even let their own child know it. You will probably never be privileged to hear this from anyone unless they are extremely open people.

I can tell you that chances are more likely that you have run into families who were built using an egg or sperm donor. It's a bit more common than you may think. Especially in Hollywood.

Let me make my case... fertility exponentially decreases once you hit the age of 35. Most women in their 40's have less than a 5% chance to conceive per attempt they make, even with advanced IVF technology. But with an egg donor, their chances can become anywhere from 55%-87% depending on the clinic they select. At the transfer, the average number of embryos implanted are 2 to give a better chance of at least one latching into the uterus.

So, can you think of any women who have ever had TWINS in their 40's, particularly in Hollywood? Unless they planned ahead and froze their own eggs, I would make a strong bet that their children are conceived via an egg donor. These idols are causing a huge disservice to their young fans who believe that if they got pregnant with twins in their 40's, then surely they can wait too. WRONG! Every time I hear another story in the tabloids that an elder Hollywood star is expecting twins, I and all the other fertility professionals immediately know the truth.

IVF is currently a growing industry in the US because more and more people decide to put children on hold and get their life settled before family building. Women in our country are not informed enough that our reproductive clocks are winding down. It's just not something we talk about over the water cooler or out at lunch.