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By Mindi Westhoff/staff
mwesthoff@newsleader.com

STAUNTON — As long as women have been getting pregnant, there have been some who can’t.

About 1.2 million people in the country are infertile, according to a 2002 national survey of family growth. Some opt for adoption and others go the surrogacy route, but many couples choose in vitro fertilization: the implantation of sperm and a donated egg into an infertile woman’s uterus. All over the country, women are lining up to undergo months of hormone treatment and invasive procedures to donate their eggs to these infertile couples.

James Madison University graduate Amber Guthrie hopes to be one of those donors.

Having already gone through the stringent screening process once at a clinic in Richmond, Guthrie is now at University of San Diego, and hopes to go through with the entire procedure this time around.

“I just turned in my application, and I go in for an interview soon,” Guthrie said excitedly.

Guthrie became interested in egg donation early in high school, but got serious about it when she turned 21, the youngest age a woman can donate. But while Guthrie is happy to be taking control of her body and helping out a fellow woman, her friends and family have concerns.

“I take it very seriously, but when I mention it to people, I’m always blown away by their reactions,” she said. “They’re always extremely surprised.”

They aren’t the only ones. Many people are taken aback by what these donors are being paid: sometimes thousands of dollars for one egg retrieval.

The idea of paying women for their bodies startles many, and it is a concern that the American Society of Reproductive Medicine addresses in its online ethics committee report. The report states that payment should in no way be construed as payment for the eggs themselves, but as compensation for the time and effort the donors put in. Chris Williams, a representative from the Reproductive Medicine and Surgery Center of Virginia in Charlottesville follows those guidelines.

“It’s very important that there’s a balance here, and it’s critical that you don’t overcompensate for the time and effort involved,” he said. “We don’t want to pay people for eggs.”

The ASRM ethics committee goes a step further and says that to not pay a woman for her donation would be unfair, considering that men are paid for similar, though less risky, procedures.

But for Guthrie, the money is irrelevant. Though she has no desire to have children, she has friends who would be devastated if they couldn’t.

“That, above all else, is a reason for doing it,” she said. “To do it just for money is almost objectifying and selling yourself.”

Guthrie also says the clinics do a good job of weeding out people who are doing it just for money. Along with strict family history, age and health requirements, RMSC’s Christie Aderholt says the screening process includes determining a woman’s emotional state and reasons for donating.

“(We want) someone that is truly pursuing this for altruistic purposes, not doing it for the money,” she said.

Guthrie’s ultimate goal is to ensure that her eggs are given to a same-sex couple, but she knows she might not have that option.

“It’s what I want to do more than anything,” she said. “I think they need it more, and … they have so many obstacles.”

In the meantime she remains nervous but excited about her turn on the table. Her friends are supportive and have even taken an interest in donating by watching her go through the process.

“I think it’ll be interesting,” she said. “I’ll be their little guinea pig.”