As the economy has declined, frequent fertility clinics report a recent swell in the amount of egg donor and surrogacy applicants, which has minimized the waiting period for infertile couples seeking the services, the Wall Street Journal reports. Average compensation for surrogates is $25,000, while egg donors mostly receive centrally located $3,000 and $8,000. Robin von Halle, president of the Chicagobased donor agency Alternative Reproductive Resources, said, “Whenever the employment rate is down, we get more calls.” The agency has seen a 30% accession in inquiries from prospective donors in recent weeks, the Journal reports. Similarly, James Liu of University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland reports that an accretion in the centers calendar of available donors from four to 17 has eliminated the waiting period for an egg donor. Andrew Vorzimer a Los Angeles attorney who represents prospective parents seeking surrogates and is CEO of Egg Donation, a donor recruiting agency in Encino, Calif. said the typical sixmonth waiting period for a surrogate in California has square eliminated. According to Vorzimer, numerous women seeing to become donors “have college loans to pay off or they hunger to avail buy a kennel or provide for their own kids catechism.” Despite the economic downturn and the formidable cost of egg transplantation an average of $20,000 per attempt clinics report no decrease in demand for donor eggs. Sean Tipton, a spokesperson for American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said, “The disease of infertility does not follow the Dow Jones average.”

Although ASRM advises against compensation of more than $10,000, plentiful agencies advertise higher compensation for limited characteristics, the Journal reports. Darlene Pinkerton executive director of A Perfect Match, a San Diegobased donor matching agency said that flying offers attract women who otherwise might not think over donating. A Perfect Match offers up to $50,000 for egg donors with upraised SAT scores and lately has experienced a doubling of inquiries from wouldbe egg donors, Pinkerton said.

According to the Journal, only a “tiny fraction of applicants” who wish to become egg donors will be accepted by agencies. To be listed on a donor registry, a prospective donor must be medially ages 20 and 30, in marvelous hardihood and have no history of sexually transmitted infections, hepatitis, diabetes, cancer or depression. In extension, candidates must receive a “battery of genetic and psychological tests and meet a spread out file of [FDA] requirements for tissue donors,” and profuse agencies retroversion down donors who are “mainly in it for the money,” the Journal reports. Accepted donors are placed on a waiting bulletin for consideration by prospective parents, a process that can perdure for several years. Von Halle said, “Now that we have more donors, its become a buyers bazaar” (Beck, Wall Street Journal, 12/9).

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