Eggsploitation

The infertility industry in the United States has grown to a multi-billion dollar business. What is its main commodity? Human eggs. Young women all over the world are solicited by ads—via college campus bulletin boards, social media, online classifieds—offering up to $100,000 for their “donated” eggs, to “help make someone’s dream come true.” But who is this egg donor? Is she treated justly? What are the short- and long-term risks to her health? The answers to these questions will disturb you…

Produced by The Center for Bioethics and Culture (Lines That Divide, 2009), Eggsploitation spotlights the booming business of human eggs told through the tragic and revealing stories of real women who became involved and whose lives have been changed forever. Written, directed and produced by Jennifer Lahl, Evan Rosa (writer) and Justin Baird (director and editor).

Eggsploitation makes a powerful, provocative and, ultimately, modest proposal: women who consider donating eggs have a right to complete information on the risks involved. Lured by promises of sometimes desperately needed money and a chance to help another woman, vulnerable young women face unknown dangers to their health in an unregulated industry. Eggsploitation is a compelling call for oversight and research so that egg donors can be truly informed before giving consent.

Patricia Ireland, President of NOW (National Organization for Women) 1991-2001, author of What Women Want

It is a scandal that the infertility industry has gone so many years without collecting adequate safety data on the risks of multiple egg extraction. This makes informed consent impossible for the thousands of young women now undergoing so-called ‘egg donation’ procedures. Every young woman considering ‘egg donation’ as a way to generate income for school tuition or other critical expenditures should see this film first. And policy makers need to insist that we finally conduct the research that should have been done years ago.

Judy Norsigian, Executive Director, Our Bodies Ourselves

I’ve been a women’s rights advocate since 1963, but this film was an eye-opener for me because I knew nothing about the multi- billion dollar egg donation industry, the physical risks to young women that accompany egg donation, and the need for research in this area.

I hope this film gets the wide distribution it deserves because the information in it is vital for young women in the US and abroad, their significant others, their families, and their societies.

Sonia Pressman Fuentes, Lawyer, Author, Public Speaker, Feminist Activist; Cofounder of NOW (National Organization for Women); First Woman Attorney, Office of the General Counsel, EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)

This powerful, important and informative documentary gives viewers true insight into the egg donation industry and helps us to better understand the desperate need for regulation and oversight. All prospective egg donors (and recipients) as well as all practitioners and agency employees in the egg donation industry should be required to watch this film!

Wendy Kramer, Director and Co-Founder, Donor Sibling Registry

Eggsploitation is a powerful and compelling film on the extreme risks and disregard shown to women . . . a must see for all egg donors and fertility patients. The infertility industry’s practice of reproductive endocriminology is a “dirty little secret” and should be secret no more.

Lynne Millican, Founder, LupronVictimsHub.com

What fertility clinics and egg donation agencies may not tell you. This film should be seen by any woman considering becoming—or using—an egg donor so that she can better understand the medical risks involved.

Diane Allen, Infertility Network, Canada

Eggsploitation is a compelling and revealing documentary that gives the viewer an up-close look at the flipside of the infertility industry. You will meet women whose lives were changed forever after undergoing the procedure for egg donation. Their disturbing and heart wrenching stories tell a cautionary tale to all women who are considering egg donation for the purpose of in-vitro fertilization or embryonic stem cell research. A must see film for researchers, physicians, professors, college students and feminists.

Kelly Vincent-Brunacini, President, Feminists for Nonviolent Choices New York

2017 Journal Article

“Long-Term Breast Cancer Risk Following Ovarian Stimulation in Young Egg Donors: A Call for Follow-up, Research, and Informed Consent” by Jennifer Schneider, Jennifer Lahl, and Wendy Kramer. In Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Vol. 34 (2017) 480-485.

Here is an earlier version of the paper and its related table (PDF). We think it’s important to get this out there because we had significant difficulty getting this article published; after an initial outright rejection, we had to go through multiple revisions and requests to eliminate material which we felt was essential to the paper. We had doubts along the way about whether this paper would ever be accepted because it emphasizes the need for egg donor registries.

The main take-home messages of both versions are the same:

There have been no long-term follow-up of egg donors, with the result that, so many years after the beginning of hormonal stimulation for egg donation, we still do not know if there are any long-term health risks such as various cancers or infertility for the young women who donated eggs.
Young women who are told that “there are no known long-term risks” often do not understand that this does NOT mean “There ARE no long-term risks” and do not realize that this is uncharted territory.
The solution is (1) To implement egg-donor registries and begin long-term studies of these women and (2) Meanwhile, begin to provide straightforward information to potential donors about the fact that currently we DO NOT KNOW what the risks are. What is different about this early version is that it includes additional perspectives directed at an American audience, in that pages 14-17 speak more to institutions such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), and to the need for American organizations such as SART and ASRM to provide more transparent “informed consent” forms to donors. These statements were removed from the final version. I was also asked to remove the last sentence (about informed consent) in case D and also the quote in the description of case E, regarding her experience at the IVF clinic.

Maggie’s Story

Maggie’s Story is a documentary short that follows one woman’s journey of learning about “helping” others have a child they desperately want, what she discovered in becoming an egg donor, and the consequences that followed. Maggie was told how special she was, but she was never informed of the risks egg donation posed to her own health and well being. She was used repeatedly for others’ gain, but when things turned bad, she was left on her own to navigate tests, treatments, surgeries, and an unknown prognosis.

Maggie’s Story is available on demand now:
Watch at Amazon: https://amzn.to/2K7Svou
Watch at Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/maggie

For more information, visit cbc-network.org/maggie.

We are currently scheduling screenings. If you are interested in hosting a screening, please contact us at info@cbc-network.org.

Host a Screening

We welcome small home and community showings of Eggsploitation. Here are a few guidelines to help you get your screening set up:

Email us at info@eggsploitation.com, tell us about yourself and/or your organization and your screening plans. Who is your audience? When and where you will hold your showing?
Confirm details with us so we have the option to make your showing information available on our website.
Let us know if you would like one of the filmmakers present at your showing to discuss the film. Travel costs and honorarium must be covered.
We want to hear from you and your audience about your response to the film! Please distribute and collect our evaluation card, available for download. After the showing, please mail or email your audience’s feedback to us.
      Eggsploitation/CBC
      3380 Vincent Rd. STE HUB
      Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

Showing Rules

Community showings must be free and open to the public (you may not charge an entrance fee, or make a profit of any kind from the screening).
Broadcasting over television or internet—including audio/video recordings, live web streaming, and posting to the web—is strictly prohibited.