Research confirms dangers of egg donation for both donors and recipients

As the fertility industry continues its search for more egg 'donors,' research is confirming that the practice carries serious risks — not just for donors, but for the women who carry children created using another woman's eggs.

Key Takeaways:

• As the fertility industry continues to grow, with more and more couples pursuing IVF and surrogacy, demands have increased for egg donors.

• The eggs are often donated anonymously, depriving donor-conceived children of the knowledge of their familial health history, background, and heritage.

• A researcher specializing in LGBT health has criticized the use of donor eggs, as women who 'donate' them — and the women who carry them — are rarely told of the risks.

The Details:

Catherine Meads, a professor of health in the School of Midwifery and Community Health at Anglia Ruskin University, specializes in LGBT health. Recently, she sounded the alarm about the increased use of donor eggs, noting that women are rarely told how much they are risking.

According to Meads, there are three common scenarios in which women choose to use donor eggs:

The most common is when a woman cannot produce her own eggs but has a functioning uterus. In this case, donor eggs and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) offer the only route to pregnancy.

The other two situations involve fertile women carrying a donated egg on behalf of someone else. This happens in cases of gestational surrogacy, where a surrogate carries a baby genetically unrelated to her, or in reciprocal IVF, also known as ROPA or co-IVF.

In the latter, one woman in a same-sex couple (or a trans man) donates her egg to her partner, so that both have a ... connection to the child.

Meads explained that research repeatedly confirms that using a donor egg, no matter the circumstance, is associated with a higher risk of numerous complications. She cited multiple studies and reviews, noting that there were known increases of hypertensive disorders, preterm birth, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, and more.

The disturbing reality of egg donation is being exposed

"For women who can only become pregnant using a donor egg, these risks may be worth accepting," she said. "But it's important that women are made aware of the potential complications, especially if carrying twins, which further increases risks."

She added, "Women deserve full, unbiased information about the risks. That includes knowing that carrying someone else's egg may increase the likelihood of pregnancy complications. They can then make informed decisions about whether the potential benefits outweigh the risks."

Why It Matters:

Egg donation is rising in many countries, and in places where it isn't, there are marketing campaigns urging women to donate eggs. It is usually framed as a way for women to make money while doing a good deed for an infertile couple.

Many of the people who choose to sell their eggs and sperm do so because they need money to pay for everything from rent to college tuition. When the fertility industry wants more people to donate their eggs, it often uses exploitative measures to encourage more women to donate.

Yet women are rarely advised of the risks they are taking, either as donors or as recipients.

Women who donate eggs are risking various complications like Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS). These risks are frequently downplayed and portrayed as rarer than it actually is.

Wendy Kramer, founder of the Donor Sibling Registry, explained:

[O]ur research paints a different picture. In our first published study of 155 egg donors, we found that 30.3% reported Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS).

In our second survey of 176 egg donors in 2014, we found that 32.4% of egg donors reported complications such as OHSS and infection.

In our third Study of 363 egg donors in 2021, 22.4% reported experiencing OHSS.

It is not known if there are any long-term risks of egg donation because there has not been much research dedicated to it. And yet, as Jennifer Lahl, the founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, told Live Action founder Lila Rose, egg donation is packaged in sophisticated marketing lingo meant to lure vulnerable women in.

The Big Problem With IVF w/ Jennifer Lahl

Lahl said:

"The marketing is very slick. When two of my daughters were students at the University of California Berkeley, their school paper had an ad: $100,000 for an elite donor. So it’s very eugenic, it’s very selective.

It’s all flowery, ‘Make dreams come true,’ ‘Help a family.’ You’ll see young girls who have sold their eggs say, ‘Well, you have so many eggs, I’m not using them anyway.’

So there’s this lure, and people go, ‘Well, I like to help people and, sure, that money sounds great, and I’m not using my eggs right now. Why not sell some?’ But, there’s the drugs.”

When women donate their eggs, they are given drugs to increase egg production, and then a trigger shot of HCG (Human chorionic gonadotropin) to release the eggs from the follicles. Eggs are retrieved using a needle that punctures the ovaries multiple times.

“[T]wo of the women in ‘Eggsploitation’ [a documentary about the fertility industry] lost their ability to ever have their own children. So their fertility was permanently damaged,” Lahl said, adding that there is no regulation or oversight within the fertility industry.

“You don’t count things if they don’t count, and these women don’t count so we don’t count them … the best you can do is CDC data that has an annual report on assisted reproductive technologies in America, and the best you can get is how many IVF cycles were performed, frozen embryos, fresh embryos, but it doesn’t tell you who these women are,” she added.

The Bottom Line:

None of this information even takes into consideration the harm egg donation does to the children conceived using these technologies. Meads did not mention them or their right to know who their biological mothers are, their medical backgrounds, or their family histories.

Women should indeed be better informed of the risks they are facing when going through a pregnancy using donor eggs. But who will speak up for the children conceived, who have no choice in the matter?