Row erupts over how much women should be paid for donating their eggs

Furious accusations of exploitation have been made concerning the issue of how much women should be paid for donating their eggs.

Women’s rights campaigners accused the government of enabling the targeting of low-income women by increasing the amount of money they can earn.

Surrogacy Concern, a UK group which campaigns on surrogacy and egg harvesting, urged the government to block the fertility watchdog’s plans to increase the payment to egg donors from the present fee of £750 per cycle to £986 from October this year.

Campaigners also called for adverts targeting women to sell their eggs to include health risks as they warned this is not currently a legal obligation.

But the fertility watchdog has insisted the rise in payment reflects increasing inflation and is not an attempt to “monetise” egg donation.

Helen Gibson, Surrogacy Concern’s founder, said: “Egg donation can in no way be called ‘altruistic’ when a payment of £986 is being made, potentially up to 10 times per donor.

“We do not pay kidney or blood donors: why is an exception made to incentivise women to sell their eggs, which are then often sold on in packages by fertility clinics at huge profits? We are clear: this is exploitation of women.”

She said they do not support any payment being made for egg donation as she called for adverts targeting women for egg harvesting to only be allowed if they include health risks.

“They are not legally currently required to do so, putting egg donor adverts at odds with advertising standards more generally,” Ms Gibson added.

They have witnessed women as young as 18 have their eggs harvested for fertility treatment usage by others, she said.

She added: “These women will not have already had their own children, and are put through the early stages of IVF in order to produce a large number of eggs for harvesting.

“Prior to retrieval, the women are given additional drugs to mature the eggs, which are then removed via a needle puncturing the vaginal wall and perforating her ovaries, multiple times.

“The ovaries swell to many times their usual size and dozens of eggs can be retrieved in one go, often more. Her body, meanwhile, is only designed to release one or two per month in her usual cycle.”

The campaigner warned at least two women in England have died from complications coming from ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHS) – a condition triggered by egg retrieval, which happens more frequently among young women.

“Adverts which target women for egg donation do not have to list health risks, and the Department for Health and Social Care has confirmed to us it has not seen or commissioned research into the long-term impact on women of having eggs harvested,” Ms Gibson added.

“We have heard from many women who have suffered from perforated bowels, abscesses, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, long hospital stays, and from women who nearly died following egg retrieval.”

Ms Gibson argued it was “shameful” that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority [HFEA] and the Department for Health and Social Care are “taking such a cavalier attitude to young women’s health”.

But Clare Ettinghausen of the HFEA insisted the UK fertility sector is bound by “strict laws and rules” to make sure patients receive safe treatment.

“The process of donating eggs is generally very safe but, like any medical procedure, it carries some risk,” she added.

Ms Ettinghausen explained they work with clinics to “do everything possible” to stop and manage OHS, pointing to recent data that showed severe or critical cases take place in less than 0.1 per cent of UK cycles.

She added: “When donor compensation was first introduced in 2011, the HFEA conducted a thorough ethical review, which identified a set of principles that ensured altruism remained at the heart of donation and that there weren’t any unjustifiable barriers to donation.

“The increase in donor compensation later this year will be the first since 2011 and only reflects the rise in inflation, rather than any intent to monetise donation in the UK.”

The comments come after new laws came into force in the UK last October, meaning individuals born using an egg or sperm donor who turn 18 from that point onwards will be able to learn who their donor is.

A historic change was made to the law covering donor anonymity in 2005, meaning thousands of people born through egg and sperm donation are now able to trace their biological roots for the first time.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Everyone should have access to the fertility services they need.

“The decision to increase compensation for egg donors is one that balances the need to support fertility treatment while ensuring the safety and wellbeing of donors so that no one is pressured or misled into making such a significant choice.”