Vox reader Quentin Ampersand asks: How safe is egg donation? Are there negative long-term impacts? How well are the health impacts understood?

Egg donation occupies an unusual spot in American medicine and culture. Use of donor eggs is quite common: More than 20,000 in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles using donor eggs took place in 2022 alone (the most recent year for which data is available). But the process also isn’t often publicly discussed. When I was researching this question, I found five media stories about people freezing their own eggs (including one by me) for every one about donating eggs to someone else.

Given the relative lack of conversation around the process, it makes sense to start with the basics: When someone is considering donating eggs, they typically reach out to a clinic and go through a screening process, both to make sure they meet eligibility requirements and to ensure they are free from STIs or any other conditions that would make donating tissue dangerous. If everything looks good, donors then take medications to stimulate their ovaries to produce many more eggs than normal (an average of 18, according to one study, compared to the usual one or two per month). Then they undergo a short surgical procedure to extract the eggs, which are typically frozen until the recipient decides to use them.

Some people donate eggs to friends or family; others donate to egg banks so that their eggs can be used by people they may never meet. People who donate to banks usually get some financial compensation for the process, which can require months of medical appointments. Payment for donor eggs has been a subject of controversy, especially since research has shown that white donors can receive more money than Black donors. Some clinics set a standard fee for all donors, often around $10,000, and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine recommends that payment should........

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