Egg Donors Want More Money, Women Sue S.F. Company

For what it's worth

​Even when it comes to donating eggs and sperm, men are seemingly getter a better deal financially.

Women across the United States are standing up to fertility clinics, claiming they are not properly compensating them for their donated eggs.

According to a class action lawsuit filed in San Francisco, fertility clinics have artificially suppressed the price for donated eggs. There are no federal laws governing the price a woman should be paid for her eggs; however, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine arbitrarily decided that on average egg donors should be paid $5,000.

Anything more than $10,000 would be "inappropriate" compensation, the claim states.

Thousands of women across the United States have joined the suit which names the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology and the San Francisco-based Pacific Fertility Center.

According to the lawsuit, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine capped the price for egg donation at $10,000 so as to not encourage "undue inducement." However, $5,000 seemed to be enough to encourage women to participate in the arduous process. Still, that number needed "justification."

Broken down, the hourly rate for women donors is between $75 and $93 -- roughly the same as hourly rates for sperm donors. Yet men don't have to go through the same long and painful process women do to donate, according to the claim.

After a basic health screening process, female egg donors has a three-week course of painful hormone injections to stimulate egg production. During this time, the donor cannot smoke, drink alcohol, or have unprotected sex.  At the same time, the donor must have frequent blood tests, ultrasounds, and finally surgery to remove the eggs from her ovaries.

And to some, that's worth much more than $10,000.

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