Got eggs to spare?

Because with a price tag of $5,000 for a few eggs, a woman’s ovaries may seem like a gold mine.

Egg donation centers have been targeting young women, such as college students and graduates, who are strapped for cash.

According to “The Project on Student Debt,” the average California college student graduated with a debt of $17,795 in 2008, and tuition has only gone up. Debt, plus the troubled job market, can leave female college graduates in need of money fast.

The standard payment for an egg donation is $5,000 but the payment can be even higher for women with college degrees or who are ethnically diverse.

In 2010, CNN reported finding ads in college magazines offering $50,000 dollars for what they called a “an extraordinary egg donor.”

Egg donation centers that offer such high compensation for a females’ reproductive cells are unethical.

Females should donate their eggs because they want to help an infertile couple, not because they are in need of the money.

There should be regulations that limit how much a female can get paid and it should be considerably lower than what donation centers are currently offering.

The money may blind many females into making a decision without seriously considering the potential risks or completely disregarding them.

Donating an egg is an invasive procedure that starts with taking high amounts of hormones to halt the normal functions of the ovaries which causes several eggs to mature at once. These drugs can lead to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.  A mild case may cause headaches, fatigue and mood swings. Serious cases can be life threatening, causing blood clots, kidney failure and in some cases may require the removal of one or both ovaries.

As of now there have been no studies on the long term effects of the fertility drugs. There have been several reports of women who donated their eggs becoming infertile but there has been no conclusive research done.

Women who wish to donate their eggs should be carefully tracked afterward so it can be understood what exactly the long term results are. There also needs to be a cap on how much money donation centers can pay a donor.

The government needs to regulate egg donation to protect the health of women.