(MCT) CHICAGO—With its row of nubile women, the eye-catching ad on Chicago’s buses could easily be mistaken for promoting an upscale dating web site.

The Chicago-based agency ConceiveAbilities is in the matchmaking business, but it does not charge a fee. In fact, this company will pay you $7,000—providing you are no older than 30, in excellent health and can spare a couple dozen eggs.

The number of annual attempts at fertilization from donated eggs has tripled in a decade, and some agencies find that they have more donors than recipients. Ethical questions are also now being raised as the business is increasingly commercialized and recruiters and donors cash in.

Demand for eggs continues to rise, driven strongly by older women, as infertile families turn more readily to egg donations in the quest for conception. And fees to donors are also edging upward.

Egg donor technology across the U.S. has gone as mainstream as selling cereal. Recruitment advertisements are not only a fixture on city buses, but in campus newspapers, on the radio and on web sites.

“What we’re seeing is the confluence of money, young women’s reproduction and the Internet,” said Sean Tipton, American Society of Reproductive Medicine spokesperson.

With more women delaying childbirth, the demand for in vitro fertilization will only expand an already booming market, said Debora Spar, Harvard Business School professor.

Such an open market is freighted with ethical questions: Is it permissible for a donor to use her check to pay off school loans but not OK to use it for a cruise? Will financially strapped women end up ovulating for more affluent ones?

The majority of donors receive compensation anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 for 15–20 eggs, adhering to guidelines of the ASRM—an organization devoted to advancing knowledge and expertise in reproductive medicine and biology.

Still, according to donor advocates, anyone who thinks the paycheck is too high has never been shot up with hormones and had their eggs suctioned out of their ovaries.

“What you are paying for is a time-intensive, unpleasant and intrusive process,” Tipton said. “We think it is totally appropriate to compensate women who are kind enough to do this.”

Some firms have two-tier pricing for candidates with the right credentials. Fertility Alternatives, based in California, spells out the requirements for higher payment in detail, including: “A graduate of a major university (preferably Ivy League), SAT scores higher than 1350…and willing to provide college transcripts.”

No such documentation is required of male donors, who, Spar said, do not even need to provide a photo.

“There’s no such thing as premium sperm,” she said.

© 2007 Chicago Tribune