Molly Bryant, a 25-year-old from Iowa, graduated in May this year with $150,000 in debt and a law degree. Less than six months later she was going under anesthesia to harvest her eggs and put a dent in her student loans, becoming one of thousands of women paid between $5,000 and $10,000 per procedure to help infertile and same-sex couples conceive each year.
Americans owe $1.4 trillion in student loan debt and borrowers are defaulting at record rates. Some people with student loan debt are so desperate they’ve said they would eat tarantulas, give up birth control or sell an organ to eliminate debt.
For her part, Bryant said she would do “almost anything” to make her debt go away. When she graduated, she began making loan payments to four different servicers before consolidating her debt into one monthly payment based on her income. Bryant, a judicial clerk, applied for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which allows borrowers who work for the government or nonprofits to have some federal loans forgiven after 10 years of qualified payments, but has been rejected twice due to small technicalities on her application. She began to look for other, less conventional forms of debt relief.
“The whole loan process is really overwhelming,” she said. Bryant got the idea to sell her eggs from a friend in law school who had undergone the procedure twice to pay off her loans. “She didn’t necessarily recommend it, but I thought the payback was worth it from what I saw,” she added.
In vitro fertilization, from egg donors and other sources, has been around for 20 years and accounted for more than eight million births in that time. It is mostly used by couples with fertility and other health problems as well as by same-sex couples. There are few federal laws regulating the price of egg donations, but the American Society of Reproductive Medicine guidelines cap egg-donor payments at $10,000. Ultimately, Bryant made $7,000 plus $1,500 in reimbursements for food and lodging the week she spent in Chicago harvesting her eggs through a fertility program, but the process was not as simple as it sounds.
“The process is very involved and it cannot be at all equated to a guy who wants to donate his sperm, which is a quick and easy process and that is why it isn’t compensated the same,” said Dr. Sheeva Talebian, the Head of Third Party Reproduction at CCRM New York, a fertility clinic. “Most people do it for monetary reasons, but there has to be some sense of wanting to do good.”
MarketWatch spoke with Bryant about her reasons for donating and whether she believes it paid off. (Editor’s note: Bryant is friends with author Kari Paul.)
MarketWatch: What was the decision process like? When did you apply?
Molly Bryant: I waited a while. I didn’t even apply to be [a donor] until after I graduated. I found a place that does it that was close to me just from Googling places in the Midwest. I was accepted after a preliminary survey on height and basic information about my background. The next step was a longer application with the family genetic history and stuff like that. If you got past that it was a psych evaluation, which was 200 questions. A psychologist looked at it and said OK you’re sane — then I had to do a psych interview where a woman had to call me on the phone and we FaceTimed and she determined I was sane and then they put up your profile on a website. The “intended parents” pick you from the listings — it’s like Tinder for babies.
MarketWatch: Did you find the process easier or harder than applying for debt forgiveness?
Bryant: It was definitely easier.
MarketWatch: What were the next steps?
Bryant: The intended parents pay for you to have an attorney and there are two different contracts — one between me and the agency and one between me and the intended parents. I had an attorney walk me through a template and made a few changes. One of the reasons I was doing it was that I wanted to see what the legal process was and how it concerns women’s reproductive health. I found it really interesting.
MarketWatch: When did you start getting paid?
Bryant: First installment is after you start the first round of medication, and you get $750. But I ended up opting to get it all at once since the whole process happens within two weeks.
MarketWatch: What was that process like?
Bryant: I started my medication on Nov. 7 and I gave myself between one and three shots of hormones in my lower stomach every day until the surgery. On the last day of the treatment, once they decide your follicles are ready to be harvested, you have to give yourself a trigger shot in your upper butt into the muscle. I bruised for a long time.
It’s a physically difficult process. You go in every single morning and get blood work and an ultrasound and my arms are still healing. You need three days to prepare for harvesting after getting a shot triggering the hormones but the actual procedure takes 20 minutes.
After the procedure I had to stay for an hour since it took me awhile to wake up [from general anaesthetic]. They said I could leave 25 minutes after I woke up. I was super bloated and in pain and my mom immediately drove me home even though they would have paid for us to stay in Chicago another night.
MarketWatch: What did your mom think about your decision to do this?
Bryant: She was a little apprehensive at first but she was excited about it because it was something different for her, and she had never really heard of it before. My brother was actually more uncomfortable with it than anyone else.
MarketWatch: Was there any part of the process you were apprehensive about?
Bryant: Part of the contract is when the child turns 18 they can contact you. Whatever information the intended parents have about you they can give to the child. That is what I am apprehensive about, and something I can’t comprehend at this point.
MarketWatch: Do you think millennials look at debt differently than other generations?
Bryant: Yes — I didn’t think I could do anything other than go to grad school if I wanted to get a job, so I had to accept I was going to be in debt for a long time. It is overwhelming to think for the next 10 years at least I’ll be paying, and if I do not get the public interest forgiveness I will literally be paying this off for the rest of my life. It’s just overwhelming.
Everything is getting so expensive — even going to undergrad is not affordable. I got the privilege of going to grad school and here I am with $150,000 in debt — so is it worth it?
MarketWatch: Do you think you would donate again?
Bryant: Probably not. I had to take a week off of work, so that was detrimental. If I were not working or had a week off over a break I may do it again.