NEWSViktoria Fox Sells Her Eggs For $100K
Pop culture has made IVF seem like the miracle cure-all for fertility problems, especially as women age. We’ve all seen glowing images of celebrities in their 40s, like Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Chrissy Teigen, and Beyonce cradling their baby bump or with a newborn in their arms. In a recent survey, roughly 2/3 of millennials said they thought that science was good enough that they didn’t have to worry about infertility because they’d still be able to get pregnant.
However, reality may shed a different story. By the time a girl hits puberty she has about 300,000 eggs, more or less, and with each year this number dwindles. In 2021, the IVF success rates were 55 percent for women under 35 and only 7 percent for a woman over 40. Even without IVF, a healthy 40-year-old woman has a 5 percent chance of getting pregnant each menstrual cycle according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).
“This drastic drop in fertility is something women may not be aware of” says Audrey Miller, M.D. of Hollywood Presbytarian Medical Center.
Viktoria Fox at Hollywood Presbytarian Medical Center
So what happens when a healthy, and successful woman in her 20’s decides to undergo IVF? Viktoria Fox, a 26 year old attorney, model and socialite from California has already undergone multiple rounds of IVF and is scheduled for more.
“I understand that it would practically be impossible for me to get to where I am if I was a young mother. IVF may not be the fountain of youth, but it's certainly the fountain of fertility. The more I researched about freezing my eggs, the more I realized that the age of the mother really matters”.
Why the Age of the Eggs Matters?
In a Gedeon Richter study, a baby girl is born with 1 to 2 million egg cells. That egg supply steadily decreases, giving the average adolescent 400,000 eggs and the average 37 year old 25,000 eggs.
Despite “40 being the new 30” in many aspects of a woman’s life, ovarian reserves continue to decline with age regardless of how healthy a woman may be. In other words, the physical health of a woman has no impact on the health of her eggs.
Fox believes “the beauty of today’s IVF technology is that you can potentially change the age of your eggs. This can be done either by using donor eggs from a younger woman, or by using your own eggs, if they were frozen when you were younger”.
Although Hollywood A-listers have spoken out about their experiences with infertility, 40 years later, IVF is still a privilege for the rich. An average round of IVF and related medications can cost at least $20,000.
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Fox says “It's a numbers game, my physician said that it takes about 10 rounds in order to guarantee 1 quality egg. I’m fortunate to have secured 8 in just a few rounds. These medications, and changes in hormones have made me so sick and anxious. After the positive test I feel normal for a week and then the nausea begins: every morning I awake feeling like suffering the worst hangover of my life. I just want to give my future children the best shot at life”.
One mother who recently wrote about her successful IVF birth on Romper estimated the total cost at nearly $60K. In fact, she and her husband had to take out loans against their 401K in order to raise the funds. It’s no wonder that many prospective parents tap out.
Eggs Going For $100k
Fertility industry experts say there is a high demand for Asian and Jewish eggs due to cultural values. If a woman is infertile, they say, many Asian couples would prefer to use the husband’s sperm with a donor’s egg to conceive a child that carries at least half of the couple’s genetic identity than to adopt a baby from other parents.
For Jewish couples, many of whom put off having kids to pursue higher education or careers, clinic operators say. According to a report from the United Jewish Communities, half of Jewish American women have college degrees and 21% have graduate degrees. They tend to marry later, the survey says, and have lower fertility rates.
Fox, who is biracial, has had numerous offers from wealthy individuals to buy her eggs. Some are going upward of $100,000.
“It started off as a joke. My friend posted a listing on her Ebay account with a link to my Instagram. The price kept shooting up, and eventually passed 100k. That’s when we had to take it down. Even then people would still solicit me online and ask if I still had any eggs for sale”.
Fox, who recently received the coveted blue checkmark on her TikTok profile, plans to document her IVF journeys on the world’s fastest growing social media platform to bring further awareness.
