Asian Egg Donors

An egg donor agency located in Beverly Hills, California is currently looking for Korean egg donors. The compensation they offer is between 5000 to 10000 US-Dollar.

In order to qualify as donor, you should be between 18-28 years old and have no history of clinical depression in your family. You are a preferred choice if you are currently going to college or did go to college in the past, and/or have an interest in arts

If you are interested, you can read more about it here.

Asian egg donors make it in the headlines these days.  Tom Travers wrote an article that got featured in Medill Report Chicago.

It’s titled ‘Culture may play a role in lack of Asian egg donors.‘

And it’s very much true.  It talks about how Asian immigrant women often face a harder time and are much less likely to donate their eggs.

This is because they have usually strong bonds with their families and parents.  In order to make such a decision as whether to donate their eggs or not they often seek approval from their parents.

The parents off possible Asian egg donors however aren’t usually not familiar with the egg donation procedure.

In fact in some cultures like the Chinese donating one’s eggs might even be considered selling one’s body — which is highly frowned upon, as you can imagine.

However, children of Asian immigrants who are born in America are much more likely to donate their eggs because they are more Americanized and adapted to the American culture.

They are also more aware of the medical and scientific parts off the egg donation process.  Plus there are less concerns about moral, ethical, or religious topics.

Americanized Asians tend to view egg donation more as a way of helping an infertile couple to conceive a child and launch a happy family. And it really is just that — a way of helping and reaching out to other people.  It’s not that different from donating bone marrow  or blood to help a fellow human being in need.

Some people think that paid egg donation is not morally justifiable.  However, donating one’s eggs is a much bigger procedure then donating blood or donating bone marrow or sperm for that matter and without compensation very few people would be willing to undergo the egg donation procedure.

Another reason why it’s difficult to match and Asian infertile couple with a right agent egg donor is that they are usually not satisfied by just having SOME Asian egg donor.

They usually an egg donor that is off the same nationality.

Dr. Richard Sherbahn, founder of the Advanced Fertility Center off Chicago, talked about one case where a Chinese couple was looking for a neck donor.  The agency had both the Japanese and Korean woman on their list of available egg doors.  However, the Chinese couple ended up going to another egg donor agency located in Los Angeles to find a Chinese egg donor for them.

Asian egg donors get better of financial compensation.  While the American Society of reproductive medicine recommends that egg donors should receive no more than $10,000 in compensation the reality of the market is different.  Some highly specialized egg donor agencies, and private couples, are often willing to pay huge extras for a perfectly matching egg donor.

Not every agency though, pays extra for high in demand Asian egg donors.

Before you can become an Asian egg donor, you have to go through a meticulous screening process.

Asian egg donors have to be of perfect health and depending on the criteria of the couple that searches for an Asian egg donor either both or at least one parent of the Asian egg donor has to be of Asian origin.

Of Asian origin in this case could also mean that you are born in America or a European country, but your parents are of Asian origin or your grandparents are of Asian origin.

Sometimes the criteria can be even stricter than that – like when couples are looking for a Japanese egg donor, a Korean egg donor or a Chinese egg donor. So being Asian in this case would not be enough, but you’d even have to be of a certain nationality to qualify. However, these are exceptions in most cases. Most of the time it’s enough if you are of Asian descendant and obviously look Asian.

You must be between 19 and 36 years old. Some places I read you must be 21 because of legal reasons – if you’re younger it’s not possible, simply for legal reasons. Because when you become an egg donor, you have to agree to a serious contract and the law allows you to do that only once your 21 years old. Even though I’m not an attorney, I doub’t whether that statement is true, as some reputable agencies do accept donors younger than 21. If you’re older than 36 years the quality of your eggs will already have dimished compared to what they were when you were younger. I’ve seen some egg donor agencies that also accept younger donors (starting at age 19) in the US.

If you already have children of your own and are breastfeeding them you will have to stop that. Lactation (just another fancy word for breastfeeding) can reduce the effects of certain drugs that are used in the egg donation process. (These are called “fertility drugs”). At least for several month before the egg donation you will not be allowed to breastfeed.

You need to be in good condition – that means not just your physical condition but also your psychological condition. Stable mental health is a must and if you ever suffered from depression that’S going to stand in the way of you becoming an Asian egg donor. But I’m not talking about feeling sad or down as everybody does once in a while – I’m talking about a real, medically diagnosed depression that got treated with psychopharmaca. Because some of the medications that are used to treat depression can be detrimental to the egg donation process.

Common requirement is also that you have a pretty regular monthly period, as this is a good indicator of good health.

In most cases you should be non-smoking and not using drugs. Some parents also don’t want an Asian egg donor that drinks alcohol, but no egg donor agency or egg donor clinic will accept a donor that is an alcoholic. Any kind of mood-stabilizing medication or tranquilizer is also a minus.

Genetic disorders are a big no-no. Any kind of genetic disease will immediately disqualify you as an Asian egg donor.

Most agencies also don’t accept prisoners, women who had sex in exchange for money, women who had sex with persons that might have hepatitis or HIV in the last 12 months,

If all of this is you – no genetic diseases, stable mental health, between 21 and 36 years old then you are ready for the next step: contact an egg donation agency or an egg donation clinic. Another option would be to just go to your local hospital and talk to them.

And by the way: If you ever gave birth to a child already, that is a good thing for becoming an egg donor!

Asian egg donors are in high demand. In the last 20 years egg donation has gotten much more common and people from all nations and continents are trying to conceive. Approximately 10,000 surrogate children are born every year now.

In general if after having tried for more than 12 months to induce a pregnancy many couples think about infertility treatments. A common one is egg donation – with a very high success rate of around 50%!

IVF (In vitro fertilization) is a good choice for many couples, because it allowes to conceive children that are genetically much more similar than many other choices. The mother still experiences the pregnancy and the main difference really is that it is another woman’s egg that is being fertilised by sperm outside the woman’s womb and than implanted into the woman’s womb. So the woman still goes through a whole pregnancy circle.

But why are Asian egg donors in high demand? Well, it’s easy to understand that Asian parents who actually want to give go through a whole pregnancy and give birth to their child want to have a similar genetic layout from their egg donor. Often, Asian parents (as well as other parents) don’t want everybody to know that they needed an egg donor to conceive. So a caucasian, European egg-donor would obviously leave “traces” – the face of the child would resemble a European. Whereas an Asian egg donor obviously fits right in – the baby would have the same ethnic origin like it’s parents.

So there’s a high demand in Asian egg donors, that’s why there are agencies who specialize in finding the right Asian egg donor. Many parents have very specific criteria that they look for (for example the egg donor should be nonsmoking, of good health, and should have a certain education, like college or university degree).
Asian egg donor agencies can command high fees for their services because parents are willing to pay a premium when it comes to such an important undertaking.