Egg donation tends to be a sensitive subject for many different reasons. A little back story: As it turned out, neither of my parents were cut out to be parents, so my older sister and I were mostly raised by my grandparents.

We worked it out, my sister and I, and we are better people because of it. But it did leave a financial hardship between the two of us. Before I knew it, I was assigned nightly injections. I literally pass out every time I see a needle piercing through my skin. I had to have my best friend Bri, who was in school to be an nurse at the time, come to my house each night to give them to me the first couple times.

The process is not fun; and that is just the honest truth. You have to inject into fat, and being pounds, I really could only inject into my small cookie pouch on my tummy near my belly button. Not the most pleasant feeling. Then the bloating started. I felt as though I could feel every egg inside my ovaries.

Peeing, running, and in the last few days, even walking hurt. I could feel my heartbeat in my abdomen with every step. The idea of removing all that bloat and discomfort is SO overwhelmed me to the point that when it was time for the trigger shot and surgery, I was actually EXCITED! Recovery is in my opinion the hardest.

It took a good days for anything to really start moving again. Two days after the surgery, I could get up and move around but it was just very uncomfortable.

My stomach was so bloated that I looked five months pregnant. It hurt to the touch. I was acutely aware of where my ovaries were, and I could feel a pulsing pain every time I tried to pee.

As it turned out, I was suffering from moderate OHSS after the doctor removed 28 eggs. She told me that I would start to pee out the excess fluid causing the bloating in a few days, to drink lots of clear fluids and fiber high foods. I did stop throwing up after I finally did have a bowel movement — eight days later.

Three months after my first cycle, I returned to the clinic for my post-surgery physical. I sat down with my coordinating nurse. This woman had struggled through two marriages due to her infertility.

She had been trying to have a child and start a family for over 20 years. She was a breast cancer survivor and a part of traveling ministry to underprivileged towns and civilizations. In that moment, I felt like I had done exactly what I was meant to do, and was where I knew I was making a real difference in life.

After my final egg retrieval, I was lucky enough to receive a Christmas gift from them at about mid cycle, with a handwritten card and pictures. But I knew that my body could not handle another cycle. This was my last one.

That sort of appreciation in life is far and very few between and I see myself as blessed to be able to participate in something so amazing. Today, I am suffering from medical issues due to the stimulation and surgeries from my egg donations.

I had always been in perfect health. Never in my life had I ever even broken a bone, or sprained an ankle. I did dance my whole life. I went to the gym times a week.

I have always been an active person with a healthy body. Two weeks after my period after the retrieval, I was getting out of bed when all of a sudden I had a surge of shooting, debilitating pain through my back and legs.

It threw me to my knees. I was home alone, and scared. Once the vibrating pain ceased, I tried to pull myself back up, and sure enough it happened again.

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I had never in my life cried out in pain until that day. My boyfriend was at work and not nearby his phone. I called my mother. She drove over, and had to pick me up off my floor, and help me to the car to get me to the ER. Every bump in the road ripped through my back like knives. By the time we got there, my back had swelled and ballooned to one side, like I had a severe spinal deformity. Once I got back home that day and saw myself in the mirror, I broke down in sobs of panic again, and my poor boyfriend had to do everything in his might to calm me down.

Those two days were miserable. My boyfriend had to pick me up to bring me there, and even that caused the knifing vibration through my back and legs. He asked me numerous times if I had fallen, or been working out. Running sets off those twinges in my back, heavy lifting and even just trying to fall asleep on my tummy — which used to be how I slept — can set them off.

Basically, my damaged nerve was unnoticed and untreated after the surgery. When I got OHSS and then my menstrual cycle, the damaged nerve flared up, causing permanent nerve damage to my lower back.

On top of the usual cramps, I am hit with that knifing back pain. The anxiety about it happening again sets off a nervous phobia in me every month, because I am so scared to experience that pain again. Knowing it can just come back anytime is a lot to deal with. Even to this day — six months after my second and final donation — sometimes during a cough, or in the middle of a workout, or even while adjusting my body in bed, I feel that sharp stabbing pain in my ovary for a split second before it disappears.

I have severe back issues now. Running will never be the same for me. The pressure of my body hitting the pavement brings my body back to the same pain and bloating feeling I had while I was administering the shots — sharp pains, shortness of breath, bloating.

It is taxed at the highest amount possible. Even though the sale of body parts is a federal offense and ILLEGAL in the U. None of this was explained to me at the time of my egg donation.

At this point, I had already taken time away from work to deal with my health, so I was behind on bills, and I had already put my egg donation money towards paying off my credit. As it turned out, after the medical complications and all the money owed to the IRS — I also reached out to a CPA and attorney — so now I was financially more behind than when I started.

It makes me so upset that something so fulfilling and beautiful has just been swooped on by big corporate America and the IRS to profit upon. I understand I should have been more vigilant in this area.

I took it for just that.

While I have been fighting the struggle, I have found dozens and dozens of more women with the same struggle. Like me, they have felt used, and abused, and left out in the cold while our bodies forsake us from the procedure while the clinic and government turn their heads and hold out their hands. Even some of the most seemingly amazing opportunities can be cloaking something different. But I have personally seen the struggle of infertility and reproductive cancers.

The destruction — emotionally and physically — they leave behind is vast. Join the secret community on Facebook: Content strategy and site design by Cool Creative, Inc. Join the egg donor forum. November 13, egg donor stories. I was so surprised at how fast I was picked up. Join the egg donor community. Recovering from the surgery Two days after the surgery, I could get up and move around but it was just very uncomfortable.

Donating Eggs | How to Donate Eggs for Money and Sell Your Eggs

I was told that OHSS is rare and that recovery would be easy. But the coordinating nurse changed my mind. So I did it. And I got OHSS again — 32 eggs were taken. The Good Side of Egg Donation Through my donation, she was going to give birth to beautiful twins in about six months.

It was that feeling alone that drove me to a second cycle. The Bad Side of Egg Donation Sadly, the way we are ushered into the egg donation process as young women is NOT fair. I did not go out and vacation. I just tried to catch up in life. So before you jump, look very very hard.

That is what humanity is all about and we can never lose sight of that. Newer Post Can egg donation cause cancer? Older Post Three Ways You Can Make Egg Donation Safer In 30 Minutes or Less. Connect with egg donors.