Men give their sperm and get paid for it so that couples can conceive. Women may get paid for eggs, but that does not happen quite as often because of the difficult process of creating and extracting the eggs from the donor's womb. Additionally, female family members can just give their eggs, for free, to each other. If you want to donate some of your eggs to your sister to have a baby, here are a few rules and a few hoops through which you will have to jump.
Donors Must Be under Thirty
While men can donate sperm until they cannot get an erection anymore, women who donate eggs are not permitted to do so past the age of 30. This is due to the fact that eggs past the age of 30 tend to produce children with many risks and many special needs. It also puts the donors at greater risk for various types of female cancers because of the hormone injections they have to take to produce enough eggs for extraction. As long as you are an ovulating young adult or someone in her 20s, you can donate your eggs to your sister or to anyone else who is trying to have a baby.
You Have to Sign Away Your Rights to the Eggs
In some states, you have to sign away ALL your rights to your donated eggs, regardless of who receives them. If your donated eggs are fertilized and become living, breathing children, you cannot reclaim them as your children. This is often the conundrum for most women, as they would find it difficult to know that children that are biologically half theirs are wandering around out there. It is also the biggest reason why most women are willing to donate their eggs to family members because they would be able to see the children grow up and be able to interact with them from time to time.
Complete Mental and Physical Exam Required
It goes without saying that your body is about to go through a lot to get four to twelve viable eggs extracted from within. As such, many states require that the donors complete a thorough physical and psychological exam. This helps determine if your body is healthy enough to donate, and whether or not you will handle the roller coaster of emotions that frequently follows every hormone injection. It also predicts any possible future health problems that may arise in the children that are conceived and born of your donation, but since you are giving your eggs to a sister, she is probably already aware of these familial and genetic health problems.
For more information about egg donation, contact health centers like Missouri Center for Reproductive Medicine.
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