Seeking: a young woman with long legs, big eyes, an athletic build, intelligence, emotional resilience and no history of STDs. Not to date, mind you, but to conceive with.
On April 4, an anonymous couple placed ads around campus seeking an egg donor with those qualities.
"No family history of genetic diseases, depression, anxiety, or mental illness," the flyer also requested. Two pictures of young women accompanied the flyer, and the couple requested that the donor be a physical match for them.
At Seattle University, off-campus solicitors must submit their advertisements to the Campus Assistance Center (CAC) for review and authorization. Without authorization from the CAC, which stipulates that off-campus advertisements may only be posted on Community Events and Information boards, solicitations will be removed.
The couple did not receive authorization from the CAC, and they placed their flyers in places like a bathroom in Pigott Building and on windows where no flyers are allowed, so their advertisements were taken down.
"As far as if it would have been approved, it wouldn't have," said Renata Opoczynski, the assistant director of Student Activities, which oversees the CAC. "It raised a lot of questions and concerns about what was actually going on."
The couple also contacted The Spectator to advertise, but The Spectator declined as well.
However, it is not uncommon for couples or agencies to advertise for egg donors at universities. The classifieds section for the University of Washington's student newspaper The Daily contains a section for "reproductive services." On April 8, the same couple placed a condensed ad in The Daily.
The couple could not be reached for comment, but they are not alone in their search to achieve a child through egg donation.
According to a report published by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) in 2006, the first pregnancy conceived through egg donation occurred in 1984. Since then, advances in medicine and technology have made the process of egg extraction less invasive and have made in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles more successful. The same report stated that in 2000, of the 3,436 pregnancies acheived through egg donation, 2,992 resulted in live births.
"Egg donation is a vital therapy for some infertile couples," the ASRM said on its website.
Women interested in egg donation can donate through an agency or a clinic pool. Agencies typically recruit donors for their clients, so advertisements placed in papers on their behalf are more likely to have specific physical requirements. Clinics with egg donor programs generally carry their own set of donor requirements.
Seattle Reproductive Medicine asks that potential donors, for example, be between 21 and 31 years of age, be the ASRM recommended weight for their height, not currently be on anti-depression medication and have completed their high school diploma or its equivalent.
"Part of [the requirements] are about our donors' desires," said Lindsey Wood, an advanced registered nurse practitioner and the clinical coordinator for Seattle Reproductive Medicine's (SRM) Donor Egg Program. "The depression issue is determined by their current situation; if they're currently on medication, we don't want to have to take them off it."
Wood explained there are a number of reasons women donate their eggs to SRM's program.
"It's certainly partly financially driven," she said.
The ASRM advocates financial compensation for egg donation because the donors go through medical procedures that expose them to risks they would not otherwise incur. Financial compensation is usually determined on a per cycle basis, and the ASRM states that if donor payments exceed $5,000, justification is required. Donor payments that exceed $10,000 are deemed inappropriate. SRM's pays its donors $4,500 for their first donation of eggs and $4,000 for additional donations. The couple offered $8,000 but did not specify if the compensation would be for one or multiple donations.
"We make sure [money's] not the only reason [women donate], that they have an altruistic reason that they want to help another woman become a mother," Wood said. "[Donors] meet with a social worker… They do get free medical and fertility screening, whether or not they go through and donate."
When SRM approves a woman for their program, they match her with a couple and start both women on birth control to synchronize their cycles. In some cases, the medication the donor takes causes ovarian overstimulation syndrome. In extreme cases, donors might also suffer from ovarian torsion, kidney or liver damage and decreased fertility.
"Once [the donor] is ready for egg retrieval, we schedule a sonographic egg recovery," Wood said. "A needle is attached to a vaginal ultrasound and they go through the wall of the vaginal canal into the ovary."
The needle extracts an egg, which the clinic then inseminates and plants within the woman in hopes that a child will be conceived.
Sam may be reached at skettering@su-spectator.com
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