As a consequence of President Donald Trump’s push for mandated insurance coverage for IVF (a mandate California has started to implement), some clinics, such as Wisconsin Fertility Institute, are calling for an increase in egg donations. Gamete donation ads tell women they can make money while “helping others” and by “giving the gift of life.”
But these women are not helping infertile people to have their own children, they are helping infertile people to have the egg donors’ children. Egg donation ads distract women from the fact that they are selling genetic material that will become their future biological children.
Gamete donation databases are set up in Tinder-like fashion to showcase the physical and intellectual characteristics, hobbies, education level, phenotype, age, etc., of donors, so that commissioning parents can “imagine how their son or daughter might look.” These databases illustrate the build-a-child manufacturing mindset involved in the gamete donor process that diminishes children to mere products.
Cofertility
A newly founded California-based startup called Cofertility is taking a new, coercive approach that targets women interested in preserving their future fertility through egg freezing. Cofertility allows them to preserve their eggs for free as long as they agree to donate half of them. The idea for Cofertility came about when the founder, former Uber executive Lauren Makler, was seeking an egg donor and found that she had to pay more for eggs from Jewish or educated women.
One of Cofertility’s egg donors shared, “I loved that Cofertility offered to cover the cost of freezing my eggs. It felt like a win-win because I could take the stress of that off my plate + help another family. I am pro-choice, pro bodily autonomy, and was open to the idea of egg donation because to me — eggs aren’t kids, they’re cells. It’s the parents who turn them into a family.”
While Cofertility claims to “honor families and donors with a thoughtful, human-centered experience,” the humans conceived through gamete donation are surely not having their needs centered, as donor children disproportionately struggle with questions about their identity, depression, delinquency, and substance abuse, and 64 percent of donor-conceived adults agree “My donor is half of who I am.”
How will the above donor’s children potentially feel about their genetic mother’s view that they are not part of her family? One donor-conceived person shared: “I hate how everyone talks about how parents want to have a biological connection to the child, and in the same breath, they talk about how that desire warrants DENYING their child the SAME desire to have a connection with one of their biological parents. We are human beings. We are not fertility treatments, procedures, genetic material, donations, or ‘gifts.’”
Further, in a study of 143 donor-conceived persons, “almost 85 percent reported a shift in their ‘sense of self’ upon learning about the nature of their conception and about half sought psychological help in order to cope. Nearly 74 percent said that they often or very often think about the nature of their conception and 62.2 percent felt the exchange of money for donor gametes was wrong.”
Cofertility is a new way to take advantage of young women who may be desperate to preserve their fertility but who may not entirely understand the repercussions of giving away their eggs. A 2025 study found that often gamete donors viewed gamete donation as ending after they stopped providing samples, and that it wasn’t until they became parents themselves, there were new social changes like DNA testing and policy shifts, or they had actual contact with their donor children, that they realized the consequences of their actions.
Risks to Donors and Receivers
Medications used in egg donation include follicle-stimulating hormones called gonadotropins that stimulate the ovaries and suppress the natural ovulation cycle to finish the egg maturity process. The biggest risk these medications carry with them is the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which can result in pulmonary issues, stroke, blood clots, kidney dysfunction, loss of fertility, premature menopause, and even death. Hyperstimulation syndrome also results in enlarged ovaries and an accumulation of fluid in the abdomen after stimulation and ovulation occur. A mild form of hyperstimulation syndrome occurs in 10 percent to 20 percent of menstrual cycles of those taking these fertility drugs. Studies also show a possible increased risk of ovarian and breast cancer following the use of these drugs. The egg retrieval process comes with risks as well, such as the risk of injury to the bladder, bowel, uterus, ovaries, and blood vessels, and the risk of pelvic and ovarian infection.
For those women using donor eggs through IVF, they are at an increased risk for thromboembolisms and general pregnancy risks, such as preeclampsia, preterm birth, low birth weight, birth defects, placenta previa, placental abruption, hypertensive disorders, and cardiovascular conditions.
Egg Freezing is Not the Panacea for Delaying Fertile Years
The women interested in donating their eggs through Cofertility are motivated by the promise of not having to pay thousands to freeze their eggs if they want to focus on a career or delay marital age. With the advancement of reproductive technologies comes the societal view that women can now extend fertility past “normal” child-birthing age. After all, why put your career on hold to start a family when you can simply “take control of your fertility” by taking advantage of this start-up? Why not have children after fulfilling your career goals? Unfortunately, women often give in to companies using them for their productivity and they decide (or perhaps feel they have no other option) to put their careers first at the expense of all other aspects of their lives. The view is often reinforced that motherhood and career goals cannot be achieved simultaneously.
Others may see celebrities having babies in their mid-40s and think: “If they did it, I can do it, too.” Sadly, they do not foresee the failed embryo transfers they will have to endure and the thousands of dollars they will spend to create that one child — not to mention the number of children they will lose in the process.
Women are also led to believe that the more eggs they freeze, the higher their likelihood of viable eggs for fertilization. Some women, however, will thaw their eggs to find that the majority, or even all of their eggs, are unviable. If any are viable and able to be fertilized, there is no guarantee that any of those embryos will implant successfully. These women, who intended to delay pregnancy despite not being infertile, now find themselves infertile, as they were not actually successful at delaying motherhood. One may think that the odds are fantastic for those who freeze their eggs, but given how many eggs actually survive the thawing process and then how many eggs actually fertilize and are deemed “worthy of transfer,” the odds aren’t that great.
Cofertility appears to be a win-win for women who want to freeze their eggs and those who are seeking egg donors. However, the exploitative nature of the fertility industry that profits from women while intentionally depriving children of their biological mothers and fathers must be brought to light.