FILLING the waiting room to capacity and spilling over into a nearby conference room, a group of young women listen closely and follow the instructions: Complete the forms and return them, with the clipboard, to the receptionist. It’s all just as in any medical office. Then they move downstairs, where the doctor briefs them. “Everything will be pretty much normal,” she explains. “Women complain of skin irritation in the local area of injection and bloating. You also might be a little emotional. But, basically, it’s really bad PMS.”
This is not just another medical office. On a steamy night in July, these girls in their twenties are attending an orientation session for potential egg donors at a New Jersey fertility clinic specializing in in-vitro fertilization. Within the walls of IVF New Jersey and at least two hundred other clinics throughout the United States, young women answer the call to give “the gift of life” to infertile couples. Egg donation is a quietly expanding industry, changing the way we look at the family, young women’s bodies, and human life itself.
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