It seems like a strange thing to advertise, but newspaper classified sections are replete with requests for young women to donate their eggs. Struck by the seemingly exorbitant pay some women might reason they could use the extra money.But do women who toy with the idea of donating their eggs ever wonder why certain ads offer so much money?

These egg appeals are a recurring presence even in this newspaper. A recent one reads:

"Attractive, intelligent egg donor needed: must be Jewish, with a minimum SAT score of 1400, 21-28 years of age, at least 5'6" and no more than average weight."

What is the difference between this advertisement and all the other egg donor ads out there? The compensation is $35,000. A full year of tuition just for some eggs.

"The reason for the high compensation is the specific characteristics the couple asked for," Melissa Brisman, a reproductive lawyer located in New Jersey who placed the ad in the Justice, said. "This specific couple had very precise requirements they wanted met for their child, such as having a Jewish background, being a certain height, things like that."

Those characteristics, along with others including eye color, hair color, height, weight, blood type and intelligence, are traits that couples looking for eggs seek in the donor. "The to-be parents want the baby that results to look as much like them as possible," Brisman said. "They want features that would allow the child to appear as originally theirs."



The graphic details

"The process is a simple one," Dr. Carol Anania of the Lahey Clinic North fertility clinic said.

Anania, a gynecologist who has specialized in infertility and reproductive endocrinology for a little more than 10 years, explained why the procedure usually comes with a boatload of cash.

"It all has to do with the amount of time it takes for the harvesting process,"Anania said. "The actual removal of the eggs is approximately a 15 minute procedure. It is the three to four months before, readying the eggs for removal, that makes the amount of money so high."

Egg donors usually receive between $2,000 and $10,000, depending on the "quality" of the eggs and how many are harvested at once, explained Anania. She added that the more eggs, the higher the pay.

"The procedure is not painful if the patient is under anesthesia, but there can be discomfort afterwards." She explained that after the final dose of hormones, the eggs must mature for another 30 to 33 hours.

The patient then enters the clinic, and while she is under anesthesia, Anania said, "a vaginal needle with a camera is inserted through the vagina while the doctor looks on under ultrasound guidance. First the needle is inserted into the ovaries to remove the fluids from the follicles. Then it is reinserted to aspirate or withdraw the eggs from the follicles."

The eggs are then mixed with the receiving father's sperm and left to sit for three days. After that, they are placed into the recipient's womb, whether she is the mother-to-be or a separate career. From there, pregnancy and birth proceed normally.



Choosing a donor

Before any medical procedures begin, a couple must first find their ideal eggs. "Usually people go to others they know who are close friends of the family," Brisman said.

She added, though, that many couples choose anonymous donors because "it makes all the legality easier to deal with." In these cases, she said, "the donor is contacted, the process is gone through, and if a child results [the donor's] name is on record but not on the birth certificate; and that's it."

If the donor and the couple know each other, the donor's name goes on file but still has no place on the birth certificate.

"The parent on the birth certificate is the one who carried the child during pregnancy and went through the birthing process. That is how the courts decided who the actual mother would be," Brisman said.

Most clinics set age parameters. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine recommends that egg donors be under 34 years-old. The average age, Brisman said, is between 21 and 30. "After the age of 30, the quality of the eggs go down, so getting them early is the goal. This is why a lot of couples advertise on college campuses," she said.

Some programs have strict age limits; they won't accept donors older than their mid-20s.

"You would be hard put to find a doctor that has done the procedure on someone under 21," Anania said.

Many potential legal issues arise when couples use egg donors.

"The egg donor contract should explicitly state that the donor waives all parental rights forever. It should state that any children born from the donated eggs are the legitimate children of the prospective parents," Brisman said. "When it doesn't, problems tend to arise with the donor requesting visitation rights, even trying to put a hand in the upbringing of the resulting child."

Once possible donors are found, a single woman must be chosen from the group. According to Diane Brindle, a registered nurse at Lahey Clinic for over 15 years, potential donors under 35 years-old are carefully screened. Their medical history is examined and they go through physical testing. Also, Brindle said, the women are "screened for basic diseases like all the STDs, Hepatitis and the like along with basic psychological testing to make sure they can handle the procedure."

According to WebMD, an online medical Web site that conducts surveys, answers questions on medically-related subjects, using a clinic might be the better way of doing things.

"Finding a donor yourself can be faster than going through a busy clinic, but there is a serious disadvantage: You will have to interview the donor yourself rather than having a professional screen and evaluate her," the site reads.

After the donor is selected, both she and the future mother undergo a series of hormone treatments for a few months. This helps make their cycles coincide, easing the transfer of eggs for both women, Brindle said.

"These hormones help stimulate the growth of more than just one egg. The goal is to harvest as many as possible; usually 10 to 15 are taken during one gatherings."Anania said.

Usually, she said, the entire process is repeated at least twice since pregnancy is not guaranteed after one attempt. If the eggs do not yield a pregnancy, the donor still gets paid.

The use of egg donors is becoming increasingly common, especially among women over 40. According to WebMD, about 10 percent of all assisted reproduction techniques in 2000 used donor eggs. And the technique enjoys the highest success rate of all fertility procedures. In fact, women using fresh embryos-not frozen- have a 43.4 percent chance of becoming pregnant in each cycle. Donor eggs can be frozen for later use, though the chances of success are lower with frozen eggs.

The recipients must also undergo a screening process. According to the Boston office of the Reproductive Science Center, some clinics set age limits for recipients, and patients must not have medical contraindications to pregnancy.



Would you donate?

Lauren Kaplan '05 said that she has considered donating her eggs for the financial reward.

"There were basically two reasons I didn't go through with it," she said. "I wasn't really sure I was willing to go through with the procedure, I've heard it can be dangerous."

"Also, when I was reading some of the advertisements that were, 'Jewish female with SAT scores of 1500 and higher, etc.' it just felt so elitest," Kaplan continued. "It felt like I was helping out the kind of people who expect their kids to be really smart and turn into doctors or lawyers ... who might not just accept their kid for whoever they end up being."

Jen Goldstein '06 said the thought of egg donation has never crossed her mind.

"If I were to do it, it would be for someone I know," she said.

"I still think of myself as a kid, and I'm not prepared to even think about having any," Samantha Saltzman '06 said. Even though she would not raise the child, she said that she "would still feel some sort of responsibility to the child.