How Much is Your Body Worth?
Donating for Dollars
By Mary Kearl and Gabrielle Linzer
You've seen the advertisements in the back of your newspaper, offering to pay for everything from eggs and sperm, to medical testing and surrogacy. But, you may be surprised at just how much potential money there is to be made off your body legally. Find out whether the compensation these common procedures offer is worth it for your bank account.
For more information on health requirements and eligibility continue reading below.
Does It Pay to Donate?
Hair: $5 to $10 an ounce
If you're ready for a pixie cut, hair can be sold online at websites like Hairwork.com and Thehairtrader.com for hundreds of dollars. But they won't take just any hair -- smokers and people with chemically treated locks need not apply.
Blood Donation: Snacks, and maybe free gas
From time to time regional Red Cross branches and other blood bank organizations host raffles and blood drives that offer up prizes. Now, with the constant rise in price at the pump, some groups are offering alluring $10 gas cards for every donor or the chance to enter gas raffles with prizes ranging from $50-$1,000 worth of gas.
Plasma: $20 for 1.3-1.9 pints. Donors usually get around $30-$40 for their second weekly visit.
The most you can make legally from donating whole blood is prize incentives, but you can get paid cold hard cash for plasma. While not for the needle phobic, donating white blood cells can be a quick way to earn supplementary money.
Egg Donor: $4,200 per donation
Before you sign up to donate your eggs, be warned, in addition to the 3-6 week drug treatment and extraction process (yes, needle insertion is involved), there are serious side effects that may make finding another way to pay for pricey college loans or overdue bills sound more attractive.
Surrogate Mother: $18,000 for a single birth and $23,000 for twins
It may sound like nine months is short time commitment given the money you can earn for being a surrogate, but since surrogacy involves months of testing and serious drug treatments, it should not be approached as get-rich-quick scheme.
Sperm: $60-$75 per donation
This may seem like a way to make fast cash, but the application process can be brutal. Somewhere between one and five percent of applicants actually make the cut at most sperm banks, and that's typically after at least a month of unpaid testing and a few free sperm samples.
Medical Testing: Varies, but you could make as much as $4950, but most compensations top out under $100
Some medical and psychological tests require less than an hour of your time, while others can be month- or year-long studies and some ask for very healthy participants while others might require test subjects with certain diseases. While this may seem like no-strings-attached way to make money, remember that you could be trying out a new drug or treatment for the first time.
Bone Marrow: Paid leave from work (depending on which state you live in)
This procedure involves surgery, drug treatments, and often a small processing fee, but could be life-saving for a leukemia or lymphoma patient. Paid leave from work varies from state to state, and is not always guaranteed for private-sector employees. Visit here for more information.
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Donor Procedures and Requirements:
More About Being an Egg Donor
Do You Meet the Requirements? Applicants are generally between the ages of 21-34, but must be at least 21. You may be pre-screened over the telephone or have to fill out an application. Candidates are given a general physical examination, asked about their sexual history, tested for sexually transmitted diseases, screened for infectious and inherited diseases like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia, and interviewed about their psychological and medical history. Above all, pelvic organs must be in top health. They must be psychologically stable and have a steady work and family life.
What's Off-Limits? You can't drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, use illegal drugs or legal drugs without permission. If you are sexually active, you have to use protection and may have to abstain for the duration of the donor cycle.
Do You Have the Time? The screening process from start to finish can take a couple weeks, and beyond that there is a six-week hormone therapy treatment to stop regular menstruation and stimulate egg production in the ovaries, similar to that used for in vitro fertilization. Ultrasounds are used to monitor egg development and then when the eggs are mature, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is injected to trigger ovulation. The eggs are usually harvested within 48 hours. Note: You must arrange any work schedule around these required screenings, treatments and ultrasounds.
Side effects to the treatment can include hot flashes, vaginal dryness, fatigue, sleep problems, body aches, mood swings, breast tenderness, headache, and/ or vision problems, cautions New York State Department of Health in 'Thinking of Becoming an Egg Donor?' You have a greater chance of becoming pregnant if you have unprotected sex. Plus, the long-term risks of fertility drugs are unknown. About 1-10 percent of women may be at risk for ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome -- or over stimulation of the ovaries that causes fluid buildup and leaking, with potential side effects ranging from mild symptoms like abdominal pain to severe problems like kidney failure.
More About Donating Blood
Do You Meet the Requirements? You must be at least 17, or 16 if allowed by state law, weigh at least 110 pounds, be in good health and not have donated whole blood in the last 8 weeks (56 days). For more detailed guidelines visit the American Red Cross's eligibility guidelines.
Be prepared for a mini-physical and a questionnaire about your sexual and medical history. Your donation should take about 10 minutes, just don't forget to bring a form of photo identification.
After giving blood you may experience dizziness or an upset stomach -- enter the snacks and juice the blood bank staff will have on hand. Before your blood is donated it will be tested for health concerns like syphilis, HIV and hepatitis B. If the results show you may be unhealthy you will be notified and the blood will be discarded.
More About Donating Plasma
Do You Meet the Requirements? All donors must be at least 18 years old, weigh 110 pounds or more and be in good general health. Reasons for rejection include low iron levels and having a disease such as HIV.
Do You Have the Time? Applicants will be given a physical during the first session, so it could take up to a few hours but, the following donations should only require about an hour and a half time commitment.
Do You Have the Stomach? The process of removing plasma, or "plasmapheresis," will feel similar to giving blood -- a needle is placed in your vein and your blood is pumped into a device that separates the plasma from your red and white blood cells and platelets, so these components can be returned to your body.
NEXT: More About Surrogate Motherhood and Donating Bone Marrow, Sperm and More
