How to Sell Your Eggs in Illinois: Eligibility, Pay, and Screening

You can sell your eggs in Illinois, and most first-time donors earn between $5,000 and $10,000 for a completed cycle, with the full process running three to six months from application to retrieval. Illinois is one of the more donor-friendly states because its Gestational Surrogacy Act gives both donors and intended parents a clear legal framework to work within. Before any money changes hands, you’ll need to pass medical and psychological screening, sign a contract drafted by your own attorney, and complete about two weeks of hormone injections followed by a short outpatient retrieval procedure.

Who Qualifies to Donate

Illinois fertility clinics follow guidelines from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. ASRM recommends donors be at least 21 and preferably no older than 34, though many clinics tighten the upper limit to around 29 or 31 under their own protocols.¹ You’ll also need a BMI roughly between 18 and 28, because weight affects how your body responds to the stimulation medications.²

Clinics also screen for lifestyle. You must be a non-smoker with no current nicotine use, and any history of substance abuse or drug dependency is disqualifying.²

One more limit worth knowing upfront: ASRM recommends no more than six stimulated cycles over a donor’s lifetime, and most reputable Illinois clinics enforce that cap.³ If you’ve donated at other programs, expect to disclose your full history.

What You’ll Earn

First-time donors in Illinois typically receive $5,000 to $10,000 per completed cycle. Donors who have successfully completed a prior cycle often earn $6,000 to $12,000, and donors with rare or highly sought-after traits can receive up to $15,000. Some programs add a repeat bonus of $500 to $1,000 for returning donors.

Compensation is paid for your time, physical effort, and the inconvenience of the medical process, not as a purchase price for the eggs. Your contract should spell out the exact amount, the payment schedule, and what you receive if the cycle is cancelled before retrieval (for instance, if your body doesn’t respond well to the medication). Programs usually reimburse travel, parking, and meals separately, and those reimbursements are typically not treated as part of your taxable compensation.

The Screening You’ll Go Through

Screening has three main parts, and this is where most applicants get filtered out.

Medical

You’ll give a detailed family medical history covering biological relatives, ideally across three generations, and complete a physical exam, pelvic ultrasound, and blood work to check your ovarian reserve and overall health.² Infectious disease testing is required within 30 days before retrieval.¹ Larger agencies may also request transcripts, test scores, or photos for their donor databases; those aren’t medical requirements.

Psychological

ASRM strongly recommends a clinical evaluation by a licensed mental health professional trained in third-party reproduction.¹ The session includes a clinical interview and a standardized psychological assessment, and it covers your motivation, stress levels, relationship history, mental health treatment, and whether you’ve thought through what it means for a genetic child to exist whom you won’t raise. The therapist is also looking for signs of financial coercion. Donating purely because you’re in a desperate financial situation is a red flag programs take seriously.

Genetic

Carrier screening uses blood work to check whether you carry genes for conditions like cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy, and sickle cell disease. Some programs run expanded panels covering dozens of conditions. Results are used to match you with intended parents and avoid pairings where both you and a sperm donor carry the same recessive gene.

The Contract You Must Sign

This is the step most donors underestimate, and it’s the one that protects you more than anything else.

Illinois addresses egg donation through the Gestational Surrogacy Act, 750 ILCS 47/. The statute defines “donor” to include anyone who provides gametes for IVF or implantation. Section 30 states that a gamete donor can be held liable for child support if she fails to enter into a legal agreement in which the intended parents assume all parental rights and the donor relinquishes hers.⁴ The contract is the mechanism that severs your legal connection to any resulting child.

A written donation contract must be signed before any medical procedures begin beyond initial screening. It covers compensation, relinquishment of parental claims, who pays for medical and legal expenses, and what happens if the cycle is cancelled. You and the intended parents must each have your own attorney; you cannot share one. The intended parents typically cover your legal fees.

Don’t rush this step. A donor without a properly executed contract could theoretically face child support obligations under Illinois law, even if that outcome is rare in practice. Your attorney’s job is to make sure you understand every term before the first injection.

The Medical Cycle

The medical phase is the physically demanding part. Plan on about two weeks of daily hormone injections, regular monitoring visits, and a brief surgical procedure.

Stimulation

You’ll self-administer injectable medications daily for roughly 10 to 12 days. The drugs push your ovaries to develop multiple egg-containing follicles instead of the single follicle you’d produce in a normal cycle.¹ You’ll come in every few days for blood draws and transvaginal ultrasounds so the physicians can track follicle growth and adjust your dosage. At the end, a “trigger shot” of HCG matures the eggs on a precise timetable before retrieval.

Retrieval

The retrieval is a quick outpatient procedure. You receive intravenous sedation, not general anesthesia, so you’re comfortable but not fully unconscious. A fertility specialist guides a thin needle through the vaginal wall under ultrasound to aspirate eggs from each follicle. The procedure averages 15 to 20 minutes, with the vast majority finishing in under 30.⁵

Recovery

You’ll rest in recovery for about an hour afterward while staff monitor your vitals. Plan to take the rest of the day off. Most donors have mild to moderate cramping and bloating for a few days, and strenuous exercise should wait until you feel fully recovered.⁶ Most people are back to normal within two to three days.

Risks and Insurance

Egg donation is generally safe but not risk-free.

The most significant short-term risk is ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). Symptoms usually appear within a week after the trigger shot. Mild cases involve bloating, nausea, and abdominal discomfort; severe cases can include rapid weight gain, difficulty breathing, blood clots, and dangerous fluid buildup. Severe OHSS is uncommon, but donors under 30, those with polycystic ovary syndrome, and those who develop a large number of follicles face higher risk.⁷ Report sudden weight gain or severe bloating to your clinic immediately.

Long-term effects are less clear. The lasting health outcomes of egg donors remain largely unstudied, and the effects of repeated controlled ovarian stimulation are not well understood because there haven’t been enough longitudinal studies.⁸ Current research has not established a causal link between stimulation and long-term health problems, but the absence of evidence isn’t the same as evidence of safety. Factor this into your decision, especially if you’re thinking about multiple cycles.

Most arrangements include a short-term complications insurance policy covering medical expenses from the procedure. These policies typically cover OHSS, ovarian bleeding, loss of an ovary, and allergic reactions, with coverage periods from four to eighteen months after your cycle medications start. The intended parents or agency usually pay for it. Before you sign, confirm the policy is included and read what it covers. If a retrieval leads to an ER visit three weeks later, you don’t want to be arguing about who pays.

Taxes on Your Compensation

Donor compensation is taxable income. The U.S. Tax Court settled this in Perez v. Commissioner, ruling that payments to an egg donor are compensation for services, not tax-free damages for pain and suffering, because donors voluntarily undergo the procedures under a service contract and the money falls within the broad definition of gross income.⁹

If an agency or clinic pays you $600 or more, they’ll report it to the IRS on Form 1099-NEC.¹⁰ Even without a 1099, you’re still required to report the income. Out-of-pocket expenses tied to the donation, like mileage and meals during monitoring appointments, may be deductible, and reimbursements for those costs are generally not treated as income. Consider talking to a tax professional during your first cycle, because the self-employment tax hits catch many donors off guard.

Choosing Your Anonymity Level

Before signing, you’ll need to decide what kind of arrangement you want. The options fall into three categories.

A nonidentified (anonymous) arrangement exchanges no identifying information, and both sides agree not to attempt contact. ASRM updated the preferred term from “anonymous” to “nonidentified” in 2022 because consumer DNA testing has made true anonymity nearly impossible to guarantee.

An open-ID (identity release) arrangement means your identifying information can be released to a donor-conceived child once they turn 18, if the child requests it. You have no obligation to meet or form a relationship, but you’ve consented to being found.

A directed (known) arrangement is one where the intended parents know you personally, often as a friend or relative. These require especially careful legal work, because a known donor could potentially seek parental rights, or be pursued for child support, without a well-drafted agreement.

Whatever you pick, genetic privacy is harder to maintain than it used to be. Direct-to-consumer DNA testing means a donor-conceived person could identify you years later even without any formal registry. Your psychological evaluation will likely explore how you’d handle that possibility.

1
American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Guidance Regarding Gamete and Embryo Donation
2
UI Health. Egg Donation
3
American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Repetitive Oocyte Donation – A Committee Opinion
4
Justia Law. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 47 – Gestational Surrogacy Act
5
PubMed Central (PMC). General Anesthesia With Propofol During Oocyte Retrieval and In Vitro Fertilization Outcomes – Retrospective Cohort Study
6
NYU Langone Fertility Center. The Egg Retrieval Process
7
Cleveland Clinic. Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS)
8
UCSF School of Nursing. Uncovering the Long-Term Health Outcomes for Egg Donors
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 61 – Gross Income Defined
10
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC