Last year, 1320 egg donations were registered in the main fertility centres of the city of Valencia, Spain. From those, 1200 were made in the Instituto Valenciano de la Infertilidad (IVI) and the rest in the centre for assisted reproduction Crea. The average age of the donors is 23.5 years and € 800 was paid to each woman for their donation.

Of all donations, around 400 (30 %) were actually made by women from other countries according to IVI (the previous year they had been 25 %). “Usually, these are women that need money in a quick way, and want other women to have the opportunity of being mothers”, say at the IVI.

Most of the egg donors are college students. “The physical appearance most looked for is that of the East Europeans, they are the major egg donors in Valencia”, affirm at both clinics.

This is because of the fact that women from abroad come into Spain to get fertility treatments. Hence, the IVI assisted in 2007 in more than 17 % of the cases foreign women, while Crea helped women from other countries in more than 40 % of the cases.

The vast majority of these women come from Italy, Germany and UK because they have some difficulties getting a fertility treatment in their countries and come to Spain for an effective and fast alternative.