
Recently I watched a documentary about the physical and emotional consequences experienced by females selling their eggs.
I recommend you watch the film. It is titled, Eggsploitation and it is a production by The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network (CBC).
Jennifer Lahl, the head of the CBC, interviews in the film leading experts in the field of infertility, as well as women who previously sold their eggs. The tagline for the film is “The infertility industry has a dirty little secret.”
The big take away from the film you are supposed to leave with after watching it is this: What are the long-term health risks to females selling their eggs? No one knows.
The “Fact Sheet” available on the film’s website, summarizes the big take away this way:
“Most concerning is that there is little to no peer-reviewed medical research on the long-term safety effects of egg procurement on the health of the young women who provide their eggs. This makes it impossible for fertility clinics to provide adequate information for informed consent relative to the health risks involved.”
HEALTH RISKS FOR FEMALES SELLING THEIR EGGS
The CBC’s “Fact Sheet” also lists health risks to females selling their eggs, which include the following:
“Risks include Ovarian Hyper Stimulation syndrome (OHSS) due to superovulation, loss of fertility, ovarian torsion, blood clots, kidney disease, premature menopause, ovarian cysts, chronic pelvic pain, stroke, reproductive cancers, and in some cases, death.”
In order to extract a high number of gametes from females selling their eggs, the women are given a high dose of a hormone drug for a use not approved by the FDA. The “Fact Sheet” explains that the drugs Lupron and Synarel are given to induce menopause and to stop ovarian function in the females selling their eggs. These synthetic hormones are being used “off-label,” meaning the FDA has not approved them for fertility use. The “Fact Sheet” adds that both these drugs are Category X.” This means that they could cause harm to babies in utero. This means that females selling their eggs that are also sexually active at that time could cause birth defects to their children.
In addition, according the “Fact Sheet,” females selling their eggs also face the risks of birthing complications:
“Due to the high costs involved in surrogacy and the strong desire to boost success rates, multiple embryos are often implanted in the surrogate mother. In addition to the increased risk of caesarian sections and longer hospital stays, the British Journal of Medicine warns ‘Multiple pregnancies are associated with maternal and perinatal complications such as gestational diabetes, fetal growth restriction, and pre-eclampsia as well as premature birth.’”
Here is a video available on the film’s website containing clips from experts in the field warning of the medical risks that have not been studied in any meaningful way:
WHAT HAPPENED TO SINDY WEI
Sindy Wei tells her story in this documentary, and she is also discussed in an article on this topic in the Washington Post. Wei’s ovarian artery was damaged during an egg retrieval procedure as a 25-year-old college student.
She immediately complained to the medical staff about not feeling well but was largely ignored. Finally, they admitted her to a hospital eight hours later when her blood pressure plummeted. Wei’s abdomen filled with blood, she had emergency surgery, and received multiple blood transfusions. She spent several days in the ICU and maintains ongoing physical consequences, including infertility.
JESSICA GRACE WING LOST HER LIFE
The CBC Documentary, “Eggsploitation” also discusses Jessica Grace Wing. She is mentioned in an article in the New York Times on this topic, as well. Wing was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 29, as a result of three rounds of hormonal treatments as an egg “donor” she did four years prior. She had no family history of the disease.
Wing spent the money she was paid on her college education at Stanford University. Wing’s mother attests that Jessica asked if there were any health risks and the clinicians assured her there were none. Yet, by age 31, Wing succumbed to colon cancer in 2003.
CLOSING REMARKS
The infertility industry thrives off altruism. They also make bank.
Often posting ads around college campuses and along NYC subways, the infertility companies take advantage of women’s desire for money. Whether they are broke college students, or mothers scraping by with mouths to feed at home, the females selling their eggs are not adequately informed of the health risks they face.
This is to say nothing of the severe spiritual consequences anyone participating in the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process will face upon their judgement. I can’t help but point this out. They are playing God by deciding who gets to be born.
At the end of the day, the fertility clinics are making profit off the commodification of children. They buy eggs from women and they purchase sperm from men who have committed the grave sin of masturbation. They then mix these gametes together to produce products for consumption.
Except these tiny products are, in fact, fertilized eggs—a.k.a. tiny human beings!
In a eugenics mindset, they often kill off the embryos they decide are least likely to survive to birth by a screening process prior to implantation. Then they inject multiple embryos into the mothers prepared for gestation. The women who agree to carry these children for nine months do not even need to be the women who intend to raise the children from birth. They could very well be “surrogate mothers,” who sell their “services” in order to help an infertile couple to become parents.
This also raises the point that those who contribute in this way to bringing newborn babies into this world for gay couples to raise—including homosexual men—are guilty of yet another grave sin.
Multiple embryos are implanted at the beginning of the pregnancy to increase the likelihood that at least one baby survives to birth. If physical defects are detected by ultrasound or other technology prior to birth, often couples “choose to terminate” the pregnancy. In other words, because the baby or babies they bought are not physically sound, they put them to death.
I could go on and I will over time in future articles. But this just goes to show just how sick and twisted the infertility industry is.
And to think, no one takes into consideration the well-being of the children who survive this gauntlet of clinician intervention to bring them about. Deep psychological and emotional impact could result, as I have discussed before, and as the CBC highlights in a different documentary that I have also seen and recommend. It is titled, Anonymous Father’s Day.
If you are thinking of being an egg “donor.” Think again.
YOUR TURN
Please weigh in with your comments below!