Tagged: fertility

Susan Cieutat is a nurse, an attorney, and she runs the San Francisco Donor Network, which connects hopeful mothers with prospective egg donors. Below is her response to a story on egg donation that aired on Crosscurrents on January 25, 2012. Cieutat says that story portrayed a "very false image of egg donation."

SUSAN CIEUTAT: Egg donation is a wonderful opportunity for a young woman to give a precious gift to others.  I think that, fundamentally, most people want a chance in life to do something heroic and egg donation gives young women that opportunity. I’ve had the privilege of working with over 300 couples who used egg donors, thus enabling them to realize their dream of starting a family.

As a growing number of American women delay childbearing into their thirties and forties, the use of assisted reproductive technology such as in vitro fertilization, sperm banks, and egg donation has gone through the roof. In the growing world of egg donation, there’s a lucrative market for healthy young ovaries – not to mention the emotional value to infertile couples.

To young women looking to do good – and make a few thousand dollars – egg donation is an attractive idea. But not much is known about the procedure’s long-term health effects. With this intimate look, reporter Teresa Chin takes us inside the American egg trade.