Considered an easy way of helping women who can't conceive on their own sex gametes, egg donation has somehow become a business to majority of young ladies, especially university goers.
Many young ladies in Kenya have reportedly resorted to venturing into such business of egg donation. According to them, exercise is such an easy way of earning money from Nairobi clinics.
Reports indicate that the young women respond to clinical adverts on social media, and whereby the offers for egg sale do range between Sh50,000 to Sh70,000. The unsuspecting donors don't care about any side effects for the donations as well as how much the buyers get at last.
Egg donation entails extraction of ovum or ova or simply eggs from a woman. The extracted eggs are then fertilized before being transferred to either the womb of an aspiring or surrogate mother, in attempts to attain pregnancy. The entire process is scientifically known as In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF).
According to a fertility specialist in one of the clinics Dr Martha Kuruga, donors must have their eggs matched with the IVF recipients. Funny enough, IVF recipients part with up-to Sh500,000 to secure the eggs. This cost includes all operations ranging from donor's treatment and extraction, and even money to cater for any complications which might arise along with the procedure.
Nation also learnt that the cost might be above the mentioned depending on the facility. The donors are required to have identity cards, their photo and academic letters.
Their information is then shared out with the intended recipients who then choose the donor based on physical appearance and education. If the donor is selected, she is then subjected to hormonal treatment to catalyze ovulation in harvest bid. The ovulation process depends on the donor response to hormones, where donors yield between 5 to 40 eggs.
Ms Maria Nyokabi is one of the many egg sellers. She told Nation how the desire to have money and meet her demands saw her sell her sex gametes.
"I decided to sell my egg at Sh70,000. While editing my College newspaper, I would see adverts entitled donate your eggs at Sh70,000, and anyone who met the criteria was welcome. Then I went for it," said Ms Nyokabi.
"Women donors can suffer medical risks like Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS), whereby ovaries swell causing fluid leakage to abdomen and chest, which can be fatal,' said Dr. Paul Mitei who is a gynaecologist and an obstetrician.