When Catherine Fonseca volunteered as an egg donor, the intake form asked for her SAT scores.
It did not ask if she understood the long-term health implications of stimulating her ovaries to produce a bumper crop of eggs to be extracted and turned over to an infertile couple.
That wasn’t an oversight by the clinic. No one knows the long-term risks to egg donors — if, in fact, there are any. Anecdotally, some women — Fonseca among them — said they experienced an array of health problems after donations, including ovarian cysts and endometriosis, a painful inflammatory disease that can cause infertility.
But there has been little research on the long-term outcomes for egg donors, who are often recruited on college campuses with the promise of tens of thousands in payments if they have particularly desirable characteristics, such as green eyes or high-level tennis skills or Ivy League degrees.
“The bottom line is that we simply don’t know anything for sure, because nobody has followed these women systematically,” said Linda Kahn, a postdoctoral fellow at New York University School of Medicine.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year began requiring fertility clinics to report a wealth of information about egg donors, including their age, height, weight, ethnicity, and history of previous donations.
The CDC already collected data on short-term complications from egg donation. The expanded data set will give officials far more insight into those issues, including the first data on whether donating eggs multiple times puts a woman at increased risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which can cause painful symptoms and in rare cases can be fatal.
But it still won’t address long-term risks.
Most of the research conducted on egg stimulation and extraction has focused on women undergoing in vitro fertilization, or IVF. It’s the same procedure as an egg donation. But the populations are different. Most women undergo IVF because they are infertile. Often, that infertility is a symptom of other health problems.
Donors, by contrast, are chosen precisely because they don’t have such health problems.
“I think it’s fair to say that they’re not the same population,” said Dr. Richard J. Paulson, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and a specialist at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. “I think that it is a valid point that we do not have very good long-term follow-up,” he said.
The one study on egg donors is a 2005 survey of 80 women who had donated eggs as long as two decades earlier. Thirteen of them said they were still experiencing physical effects that they attributed to the donation — things like ovarian cysts, fibroids, and infertility issues that arose later in life. But it was a small and unscientific sample, with no medical records to back up the women’s claims.
The dearth of solid data frustrates and enrages Dr. Wendy Chavkin, a professor of public health and obstetrics and gynecology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and cofounder of Global Doctors for Choice, a reproductive health advocacy group.
“To be going out there and using these procedures in a widespread manner violates every aspect of public health policy. ”
Dr. Wendy Chavkin
Egg donation nearly doubled from 2000 to 2010, when there were more than 18,000 donor cycles in the US, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The CDC reported that the number of donor cycles was 20,481 in 2014, the most recent year for which data is available. Experts predict the number will continue to rise as more women decide later in life to have children.
Chavkin argues that it’s not responsible to do so many procedures without more data.
“To be going out there and using these procedures in a widespread manner violates every aspect of public health policy. You’re supposed to have proof of efficacy, ethicality, proof of no other route,” she said. “Maybe donating is great, and a big boon, and consequences are minimal. But we don’t know.”
A swollen abdomen and a pounding heart
It was a cold February morning in 2014 when Catherine Fonseca walked into Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey. She was there for the final step of egg donation — the egg retrieval process. For weeks, Fonseca had been injecting herself with hormones to nudge her ovaries to produce more eggs. By day 10 of pricking her stomach with a hormone-laden needle, her abdomen had swollen so large that she couldn’t fit into her pants.
Most donors produce somewhere between 10 and 25 eggs, which are then sucked out of their fallopian tube with a hollow needle inserted through the vagina. Fonseca’s ovaries had produced no less than 59 eggs.
Every one of those eggs would become the property of the Portuguese couple who chose Fonseca as their donor for her lustrous dark hair, big, bright brown eyes and elegant, expressive brows — all features common in Portuguese ancestry.
Many women donate eggs for the money; compensation is commonly around $5,000 to $10,000, though it can range higher for those with the most desirable traits. Fonseca, who’s now 26, was motivated in part by altruism. She liked the idea of helping a couple conceive; she was in nursing school at the time of her donation, and also on the bone marrow registry.
Still, by the time she went to the clinic on that morning, she was ready for the swelling and injections to be over.
As it turned out, she still had a long road ahead. The nurse gave her Tylenol with codeine after the egg retrieval and sent her home, but a few hours later she was in the emergency room. Her waist, normally 28 inches, now measured 41. Typical ovaries are about the size of walnuts. Hers had swelled to the size of grapefruits, displacing her other organs.
Typical ovaries are about the size of walnuts. Hers had swelled to the size of grapefruits, displacing her other organs.
The hormones made her estrogen levels skyrocket, and in turn her capillaries were leaking into her abdomen. All of this made her blood thicken, putting her at a high risk for clots and pushing her heart into overdrive.
Fonseca was experiencing ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, or OHSS. For every 100 women who inject hormones to stimulate their ovaries, one or two are likely to experience it. Sometimes, it requires a simple draining procedure. Rarely, women die from it.
For Fonseca, it took six months before she started to feel normal again, but she said after the OHSS, she started experiencing other medical issues that weren’t previously a problem: ovarian cysts, cervical tumors, 25 pounds of extra weight. Most recently, she was diagnosed with endometriosis.
Fonseca and other egg donors are warned that hyperstimulation is a short-term risk. They’re also typically told about immediate psychological effects of donating genetic material, which the American Society for Reproductive Medicine describes as “complex.” Those cautions are spelled out in the informed consent documents that donors sign.
But there’s no information in those documents on potential long-term risks, because research is so sparse.
A 2011 study that followed 25,000 Dutch women for 15 years found that infertile women who went through IVF were four times as likely to get ovarian cancer much later in life than infertile women who didn’t have the procedure, though the likelihood is still very low.
But infertility already predisposes women to a number of health risks, said Chavkin. She said that data from IVF studies can’t be used to draw conclusions about all egg donor risks. “There’s only the one piece in common [between the groups], which is the original stimulation and the retrieval. After that, once the embryo is implanted, the IVF recipient is going to go under a number of other hormonal changes, including pregnancy,” she said.
There simply isn’t any long-term health information to give egg donors, Kahn said: “They’re signing an informed consent, but how informed can your consent be if we don’t have the information?”
She and Chavkin say there’s no incentive for anyone to study the health risks to egg donors because the system as it now stands seems like a win-win-win: Fertility clinics get business, egg donors are well-compensated, and infertile couples have a better chance to conceive a baby.
“A for-profit business has found a willing group of consumers and sellers and run with it,” Chavkin said.
Added Kahn: “There is no eagerness to find anything wrong.”
“The biggest thing egg donation did was scare me. I felt used.”
Catherine Fonseca
Fertility experts say that research hasn’t happened because of the way egg donors were originally perceived when IVF started over 30 years ago. Most of the focus was on the infertile couple seeking to conceive.
“The egg donor was sort of in the background,” said Paulson, of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
“Donors aren’t really patients in the normal sense of the word,” said Dr. Jim Toner, an Atlanta-based endocrinologist and clinical director of SART. “So [the CDC] did not build out a system that allowed reporting of the donor’s cycle itself.”
A repeat donor finds herself infertile
Janneke Parrish, 25, has donated eggs three times.
Or at least, she’s tried to.
Her first two donations went well. She received $4,500 in payment the first time. The second time, she only accepted coverage of her medical costs because she donated in the UK, which doesn’t allow women to receive compensation outside of medical costs.
The third time, she was in the midst of the preparatory blood tests when she got a shock. “They called and told me my hormone levels were lower than the woman interested in receiving my eggs,” she recalled. She was infertile.
Parrish doesn’t blame her early menopause on her two donation cycles. But she admits that it’s odd — her mother got pregnant at 38 and there are no instances of infertility in her family. “On one hand, I never intended to have children, but I didn’t want biology to force that on me,” she said.
Now a data analyst at Apple, Parrish doesn’t regret donating her eggs. She still remembers the ad that prompted her to first consider it, when she was an undergrad majoring in philosophy and religious studies. The couple was looking for someone who was 5’7”, with brown hair and brown eyes. “That was me,” said Parrish. “Because the woman looked like me, I put myself in her position. There was no reason I couldn’t do it, so I thought I would change someone else’s life.”
Parrish said she would donate again if she could, but she does want more research on the risks for egg donors.
“I think there should be more research on the long-term effects, but I also understand the difficulty in doing so, given both the anonymity and the fact that this is fairly recent, technology-wise,” she said. “It’s difficult to make an informed decision when there’s no knowledge of what potential consequences could be.”
“It’s difficult to make an informed decision when there’s no knowledge of what potential consequences could be.”
Janneke Parrish
Both Parrish and Fonseca said they’ve relied on advocacy groups like We Are Egg Donors to connect with other women who have been through the procedure.
It was on the group’s message boards that Fonseca finally found some comfort. The most lasting trauma, said Fonseca, has been the psychological strain — another area where research is scarce. “The biggest thing egg donation did was scare me,” she said, her voice weighty with emotion. “I felt used.”
Fonseca has not been able to find out whether the couple who got her 59 eggs was able to conceive a child. She agreed not to contact the couple when she went through the procedure. But she can’t help but wonder about the fate of the eggs that cost her so much.
“I just want to know,” she said, “if it was worth it.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled Catherine Fonseca’s last name.
Waiting forward to experience all the things with my LO myself!! We’ve just through the DE IVF process. Our new clinic overseas and docs have created a miracle for us. I’ve already read much about what to expect during baby’s 1st year. So many astonishing facts I’ve never heard of before! One of those, for example, is that babies are born without kneecaps. Babies have a structure of cartilage that resembles the kneecaps. These cartilages do not develop until they are fully six months. And that’s the reason most of the babies crawl on the arms instead of all fours! Also researchers say that May babies are the heaviest! They usually weigh around 200 grams heavier than any other month born babies. Yet another one, we say baby’s crying. Actually, babies howl and scream for what they want or need, but they do not cry. Tears cannot be released or created for about three weeks. That’s because their tear ducts are not entirely developed. They do produce enough moisture to keep the eyes healthy, but they won’t shed proper tears for several weeks. Isn’t that amazing! I was shocked to get to know that unlike adults, babies are born with 300 bones! which is almost 50% more. The bones fuse together during growth that makes it 206. For example, the skull of the baby has several bones that overlap one another during the birth to help the baby squeeze out. And many other facts I’ve never known about earlier. Nature is amazing!
@Ava, could you please tell more about mitochondrial donation you’ve mentioned?? TIA
I’d been ttc for many years and after I heard about new and unique method for infertility treatment in Ukraine, I had gone there without any hesitations. There was nothing to lose for me so I decided to try mitochondrial replacement therapy. I was going to start my egg donation treatment but heard that I may have a chance to conceive with my own cells but with donor’s mitochondria. So, I’ve tried and as a result, I had a positive outcome. My daughter was born in April. I’ve conceived from the second attempt. It was a huge step for me ad I was blessed for all my efforts.
Interested in hearing about donor mitochondrial transfer…
“It’s difficult to make an informed decision when there’s no knowledge of what potential consequences could be.”
It is cool said. It is very hard to make the right choice or decide where to go without the whole picture especially if it come to our health. Before starting this or that journey one should understand all the seriousness of the matter, should be aware in all the procedures, success rates of the considerable clinics, info about doctors and, of course, consequences that may appear during and after the treatment.
I personally went through ivf with donor eggs. My little boy is almost 1 yo. I was diagnosed with PCOS at 28. We were trying to conceive for 8 long years! Naturally – before the diagnosis, with help – after. Nothing worked, including clomid and regular ivf. So obviously using donor eggs was our next step. And I’m so grateful to a woman who donated her eggs so I was able to become a mom! The procedure was anonymous and unfortunately I know nothing about the donor. But I’m so happy there are women who become donors and save our lives. My point is, egg donation exists since 80s. Millions of women donated their eggs during this whole time. It’s obvious that there may be risks as the procedure itself is intervention into the woman’ body and changing the way it normally works. But if there were really serious and dangerous risks I really doubt egg donation was that popular and known/practicing worldwide. And of course the procedure should be performed only by professionals and under control.
@Mina Thank you so much for sharing your story! My congratulations to you! I have PCOS too. Unfortunately, treatments gave no result. I did a couple ivf rounds with my eggs – still nothing. At the time I had the 3rd round I was 37. I decided not to waste more time and turn to donor eggs option. The hardest part I think was finding a clinic. I decided to go abroad as the procedure is very long and complicated here in the UK. I contacted 3 or 4 Ukrainian clinics. Eventually, I chose the one with higher rates. My first meeting with a Dr was a couple of weeks ago. All needed medical tests are done! The Dr gave me a treatment plan. So now I’m following the instructions and get ready for the transfer! I’m so nervous and excited at the same time! There will be 5 embryo transfers. The clinic returns money in case of failure… But I hope at least one will work! Wish me luck!
Egg donation is a very serious matter as you must be sure in donor’s health on 100 percent. I don’t think anyone should agree to have their friends or relatives as their donors as, first of all, it may ruin relationships and, secondly, they must be absolutely healthy and fully examined by the doctors. Due to my health problems I can provide my own cells and carry a baby by myself so I had to go to a medical center for this treatment. I trust the place I have chosen and absolutely sure that they provide the real info.
I think that it is really an important theme of modern fertility world. I mean that if somebody agreed to help someone with such delicate question this person should be sure that with the donor’s organism will nothing happened. And there will be no problems in future. I am a 4-time egg donor in the Biotexcom center. I started back when I was in my early years and it was mainly just for extra money and to be able to travel. But I extremely believe that a lot of moments depend on the clinic. I chose for my donation the Ukrainian center for human reproduction in Kiev. They suggested to me nice money and as soon as I came there I felt like they are pretty reliable. And I must say that even now after a few years I felt pleased after visiting this clinic. I liked the whole process in general. And now I can say for sure that there are no problems with my organism and health. Moreover, I met there a couple of interesting girls and I still trying to talk with them sometimes. I heard their stories and I must say that we all had such a great experience. I can give only the highest recommendation to this clinic. Hope, that my donation helped a few couples to get their miracle child.
Number of eggs in the female body is limited. It is absolutely true. Sometimes women do not think about this fact. They sometimes do not realize it. As a result they need IVF or donor eggs. After the last eggs went woman loses the ability to natural fertilization. It is usually occurs at 50 years old age. During the embryonic period there are about 6-7 million eggs in a woman’s body. After birth there are about 1 million eggs. But growing up most of the eggs disappears. And by the time of puberty about 300 thousand stay. During the period of childbearing age only 400 eggs are alive. It is because their destruction process continues all the time. The eggs are female sex cells. They are the most powerful cells.
The current figures show that over the last couple of years the number of IVF cycles where fresh own eggs/ donated eggs are used is up by more than 50%. Among women over 45, more now use donated eggs than their own when using medical assistance to get pregnant. What’s happening at the moment is that more and more women are delaying motherhood until later in their lives. But the fact is that as you get older the quality of your eggs diminishes. Using donated eggs from a younger woman pushes the success rate right up for older women. It can be the difference between 3 or 4% using their own eggs, right up to as high as a 60% success rate using donated eggs. The thing is that the womb doesn’t age in the way eggs do. So a woman can carry a child at almost any age. I have also appreciated what egg donors/surrogates are doing for us. Seems they allow themselves the pleasure of feeling good about having made such an extraordinary difference to the lives of strangers… I know a woman who’ve shared her eggs once. She told when she was at the clinic in the waiting room and saw couples there waiting for their appointment, and could see how hard it all was for them. At the end of the day, the bit she did was the easy part..All in all, one should make sure he’s asking for donor egg option at a reputable place. Moreover, one should study the county’s law accurately not to get trapped in a way. This is also awesomely helpful to talk to more people who’ve been though the same treatment and ask for their feetback.
Oh my! That’s awful…I knew that there is a risk and side effects may emerge but I don’t know anyone personally who faced with OHSS or had complications after stimulation. I conceived via egg donation but I’ve never been though IVF before. I’m so grateful for getting wonderful eggs from our donor but now I’m concerned about her destiny. In Ukraine all donors are anonymous so I just can’t find out who she is. When I was choosing her in biotexcom donor database, there were around 1,000 women and all of them were ready to donate their eggs. At least all of them has a child of their own amd they won’t find out what infertility is. However, egg donation helps desperate couples so much
When you see your friends in pain, you want to do something to help them. But in that situation, you can’t help them directly. I was sitting at home one night thinking ‘What can I do? A Google search led me to Biotexcom ‘s egg donation program. My giving spirit took me the rest of the way. Creating pregnancies from donated eggs is a small part of the clinic’s work. Appears that their sponsor is the best reproductive center in East Europe. This provides great service for more than affordable prices. There are great doctors in Ukrainian medical centers and they really work wonders in reproductive sphere. The right professional team will offset the fear and nervousness you will have in going through any procedure. Many people prefer to criticize ART medicine. But if they face the problem of infertility, their minds change. I hope that in a few decades there will be no childless families at all. I hope that every infertile couple will make a right decision in order to change their life. So knowledge is power so best advice I can give to start is research research research!
Holly,
You’ve evidently overlooked several of my posts and chosen to focus on a single word, from a single post.
Are you aware that 85% of couples who have lost a child under 10 y.o. divorce within a year. Have you lost your child to an unknown genetic marker? Can you imagine how that feels… and how that feels for any siblings – for the rest of your life?
While adoption can work great, it isn’t a perfect solution either. Some states will not medically insure, and over several decades, have witnessed couples unknowingly taken on fetal alcohol syndrome, or similarly effected children. Moreover, I’ve witnessed adopted babies and special health issues destroy otherwise happy marriages, in more than one instance.
The rate of adoption success is often dependent on the adopting parents, but it seems to be about 50/50 currently.
What I am ultimately trying to say is: there is no single solution. Today the varied solutions form a fabric. Most definitely, donor health matters. How one is conceived is, but a moment in time. What truly matters is that we connect, form bonds and mentor the next generation.