Nov 4, 2024
In a video posted in August, influencer Gigi Juliana can be seen sipping on her iced Starbucks while she casually tells her followers that she is eager to turn her reproductive potential into financial gains.
“This girl just said she donated her eggs and got a quick $20,000 — and I immediately started looking it up and decided that’s going to be my next hobby,” the 19-year-old TikToker, who currently has nearly $150,000 followers, shared.
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This viral video has garnered nearly 20 million views with many commenters expressing shock at how much money can be made and their own willingness to donate eggs. “I bought a house (down payment) with my earnings from donating my eggs!!” said user meggytoomz.
However, many others expressed their reservations about the procedure and the emotional toll it may take. “I want to do this but idk if I can handle the fact that there’s a little person running around somewhere that’s half of me,” wrote user maddymeyers18.
Later that month, Juliana posted an update saying she had done more research and that she’s “thoroughly considering” being an egg donor.
While the prospect of making money while helping another couple is enticing, the reality of egg donation is far more complex than many teenagers and young women may realize. There can be short-term complications, and despite the practice growing in popularity, little is known about the long-term risks to egg donors.
So, while Juliana and her followers may see this as a quick route to wealth, egg donation carries risks that make it a gamble that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Lucrative side hustle?
With the cost of living often far exceeding the income of young adults, many young women are considering egg donation as a financial solution – and the appeal isn’t hard to understand.
My Egg Bank, a network of donor egg banks in North America, says their egg donors receive between $10,000 and $120,000, depending on their location and the number of donation cycles they complete.
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As the comments on her video show, Juliana isn’t alone in her curiosity about the potential benefits of egg donation. In a 2021 article published by The Guardian, a former student at Columbia University’s School of Journalism recounted being shocked upon realizing the cost of her tuition would amount to $116,000. Although she managed to secure a scholarship, the significant cost of rent and living expenses led her to explore egg donation as a way to bridge the gap.
It turns out this is a common story. Diane Tober, an associate professor and medical anthropologist at The University of Alabama, surveyed over 700 U.S. egg donors and 36% cited educational expenses as the primary motivation for donation.
“Very few are taking the money for what we would consider to be frivolous items,” Tober shared with Forbes. “Most are using the money on the costs of being a student, including student loan debt.”
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Risky business
Seeing egg donations as a get-rich-quick scheme ignores the potential risks.
Among the health risks to donors, the Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) lists ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which can be life-threatening in severe cases. They also mention procedural risks like pelvic infection, intraperitoneal hemorrhage, or ovarian torsion.
Research on the long-term effects for young women like Juliana remains very limited. Medical experts speaking to STAT News said “there’s no incentive for anyone to study the health risks to egg donors because the system as it now stands seems like a win-win-win: Fertility clinics get business, egg donors are well-compensated, and infertile couples have a better chance to conceive a baby.”
Donors may also one day find themselves tracked down by biological children – which can be done more easily nowadays with DNA tests like 23andMe. So while Juliana might have thought she was onto a lucrative side hustle, this may be one to reconsider.
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Victoria Vesovski is a Toronto-based Staff Reporter at Moneywise, where she covers the intersection of personal finance, lifestyle and trending news. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto, a postgraduate certificate in Publishing from Toronto Metropolitan University and a Master’s degree in American Journalism from New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Her work has been featured in publications including Apple News, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money, Her Campus Media and The Click.
