Choosing Eggs

Abstract

Women who fail to get pregnant using their own oocytes (or eggs) can try using another woman’s but then face challenges. Potential parents who decide to use someone else’s eggs must determine whose to use—family members’, friends’, or strangers’. In the United States, one of only three countries that legally permit individuals to buy and sell human eggs, most prospective parents who use other people’s eggs buy them from strangers, fueling a proliferation of egg donor agencies. Women and agencies selling eggs can earn relatively large fees—up to $50,000 for an egg. Yet young women selling their eggs do so primarily for money and may not sufficiently grasp the risks, especially ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, raising ethical concerns. Many patients also grapple with whether to tell others that an outsider’s egg was used. To avoid needing others’ eggs in the future, young women also face dilemmas of whether to freeze their own eggs. Providers and patients often wrestle with uncertainties and dilemmas.