Selling Your Body
And no, I'm not talking about prostitution...Get your minds out of the gutter!
Here is a fact you probably didn't know about me: I "donated" my eggs a few years back. (And by "donated" I mean "sold", but as long as I say "donated", the $7,000 I received is untaxable. Gotta love loop holes.) I was featured on FertilityAlternatives.com and my ova was anonymously purchased by a couple in Los Angeles. That's when the fun began...I had to swear off alcohol, caffeine and sex for a month and I had to inject myself with fertility hormones twice a day for 2 weeks, which made my body "pop" multiple ripe ovum (22 to be exact). For you that don't know, usually a women only produces one per month. Well, when I signed up for this gig, they failed to mention that these shots are really really painful. And I'm not talking about the needle part. The actual drugs burned as they were being injected and sent shooting pains up and down my thigh. RAD! And I got to do that twice a day! Then my ovaries were so swollen that I had to stop running because I could feel them bouncing around (Ewwwww. That grosses me out just thinking about that again). Next I was required to go to the fertility doctor EVERY day for 2 weeks. Okay, imagine having to go to the gyno every day, mix in super moodiness brought on by raging hormone injections and then have some quack poking your swollen ovaries from the inside out. Let's just say that the doc and I exchanged a few words. And a lot of mine started with F. So after a month, my eggs were ripe for the picking, so I went to the hospital and was harvested. When I first woke up from surgery, I actually felt a lot better since my ovary were no longer filled with eggs, but the day after surgery my ovaries started leaking fluid into my abdominal cavity. They poked 22 holes in my ovaries and expected them not to leak like a seive?! Fabulous. So I was bed ridden for at least another week.
SO, after all of this trouble I went through, the couple that spent all of this money trying to get pregnant with my genes DID NOT get pregnant. What a bummer! They offered me $10,000 to do it again, but I politely turned them down while my mind was screaming, "No way in hell!!!".
Rambled by Vicious Summer @ 1:05 AM
16 Shenanigans:
My ovaries feel swollen just from reading this.. I am glad you are not doing this again..
Just out of curiosity: how much would they need to offer you to do it again?
I wouldn't do it again for less then $50,000. Any takers? HAha...The problem is that they don't really know the after effects of egg donation on your body since it hasn't been around for that long. Maybe I just shortened my lifespan by 20 years...Or perhaps my children will be born with 2 heads...
It's so much easier and more pleasurable for men to donate :D in fact most would do it for free
Damn that is a killer post, on of the best I have ever read.
Just out of curiosity, why did you donate at that time? Where you in desperate need of the money? Or did it *seem* like an easy way to get your hands on some tax-free dough?
I didnt know there was such a market for things like this ...
& yes Al it is so much more easier and pleasurable for guys to donate, we'd probably say, huh that was donating for a good cause? Again, again, again !
piniyini
My decision to donate was fueled by a lot of things...Money was one of them but I was also curious about the process (I like experiments! Even if I'm one...haha). I also thought it was a good thing to do in the aspect of helping someone have a baby that was unable to do so on there own. Also, at the time I was pretty sure that I didn't want kids of my own, so I figured I should pass along my genes somehow. Weird? Yes, I am. =)
Summer, you have even more of my respect than ever... you are one cool cookie :D Lance Armstrong's wife went through the same procedure, and this is at the same time as reading about the guy's battle with cancer and his chemo-therapy !! Harrowing tale.
You want more Jaffa Cakes, you just say the word princess ;) xx
Hi,
I am/was seriously considering donating my eggs when I stumbled upon this site. It was refreshing to hear an honest and straightforward opinion. If you don't mind, I have a few questions I hope you can answer.
-How long were the visits to the doctor for the ovary ultrasounds? 30 minutes? An hour? I hear they draw your blood everyday for a week too. Ouch!
-On a scale of one to ten (one being pulling off a band-aid and ten being burnt at the stake) how painful were those hormone shots? Did the pain last long?
-I hear it takes about two months with the whole finding a couple, filling out forms, tests, etc. But how long is the ACTUAL donation? What I mean is, from when you start injecting to when the eggs are "harvested"--exactly how many days/weeks did you endure?
Any information you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again for posting this on your blog and giving me some insight on your experience.
-E. Greenwood
bowlingisforlovers@gmail.com
- The Dr visits averaged about an hour, but they were almost every day, which means you will miss work. They do draw blood everytime and if you think that hurts...just wait until the fertility injections that you will have to give yourself TWICE a day for a week.
- The hormone shots were easily an 8, and I have a very high pain threshold. The pain didn't last too long, but it definately did linger for a few minutes after the shot was done being injected.
- The time to match you with a "buyer" varies depending on how much you are willing to take for the donation and the agency you go through. I took almost a year to match with a couple. The process of dr's visits through harvesting the eggs is 1 month.
I hope this info is helpful to you! And if you do decide to go through an egg donation, I suggest that you only do it one time max. They really don't know what the after effects will be since this procedure is relatively new and I'm sure it can't be a positive experiance for your body.
Thanks for the information! You've given me a lot to think about. Like: oh no, I have an aversion to needles AND a very low pain threshold. Do you remember the name of the hormone shots by the way?
Believe me, if I go through with this, I will not be doing it more than once. I heard it may cause ovarian cancer, or at least increase the risk of it. Too bad donating eggs wasn't invented a hundred years ago.
Thanks again. Now I have to weigh whether I have enough masochism in me to deal with such excruciating pain...
Best,
Esther
Esther,
I'm glad I could help. The people that make money off of you donating your eggs make it sound like a breeze, so I'm glad I could give you a real 1st person experience.
I don't remember the name of the hormones I was shooting up, but I'm pretty sure that they will all hurt the same.
Aside from the pain, egg donatation turned me into "Super Bitch", from all the raging hormones I was pumping into my body, so if you do decide to do it, definately warn people. You'll have PMS X 100 for 3 weeks or so.
Good luck ;)!
Hi, I also have been considering donating my eggs. You mentioned having moodiness and extremely bad PMS..was it controllable? Because I know that I can be a bitch when I'm PMSing, but I can also control it while I'm at work and I'm afraid I won't be able to. Did it affect you on the job?
I'm sure the severity of the PMS varies from person to person. I would realize that I was being a bitch and I would know that it was because of the hormones, but even then I couldn't stop being incredibly annoyed and bitchy. But, I didn't throw my computer at my boss or anything. I suppose it would depend on what type of work you do, but it could affect you at work. Donating your eggs does interfere with work, though, because you have to see the dr almost every day for two weeks. You definately will need to take time off of work.
My husband can't have kids which means I'm not having kids. He's 65 now and I'm 38 ,married 17 years --so you see no kids but just the idea having a little bit of somewhere makes me want to sell my eggs!! I'm starting a new business and I've never been one to ask for help, especially (i don't know why) from him- I'm moving away as well!!!Holy this isn't the Dr. is in for advice site!! Sorry -
Can I get a little advice for selling my ovaries I'm Canadian and confused-HELP!!
Unfortunately you have to be fairly young to sell your eggs (usually 18 - 29, max)
Thanks so much,there!my friend and i were thinking of selling our eggs to help pay 4our PostGraduateDiploma but then i guess,after what we read we'd rather get loans n work like donkeys.We think you should raise an awareness program.
jan.(United Kingdom)
I've also thought about selling my eggs I'm already a mother of two beautiful little girls me and husband really don't plan to have any more anytime soon i was just wondering what are you allowed to do and what aren't you allowed to do? for example when you get your period can you use tampons etc. is there a limit to how many eggs you want to donate?Do they have any other preferences for example does one have to be a certain race, full blooded anything of that nature?
Post a Comment
<< Home