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By 2004, the baseline figure of $2,500 per donation had slowly given way to substantially higher prices and a more differentiated pricing structure. Most large fertility centers offered their own in-house egg programs, complete with a full menu of potential donors and prices that typically ranged between $3,000 and $8,000. These figures followed strong geographical trends, with fees in smaller cities hovering still around $3,000 to $4,000; those in Washington, D.C., averaging about $5,000; and those in New York, the highest-priced market, hitting between $7,500 and $8,000. [35] The centers recruited donors using discreet ads in local newspapers and provided potential clients with both physical and social descriptions of each option. At the Genetics & IVF Institute, for example, clients could learn their donor’s ethnic background, education record, occupation, and special interests. All donations, though, were strictly anonymous, with clients and their eventual offspring never learning the origins of their genetic material.

Other suppliers, by contrast, offered a more hands-on approach. At the Center for Egg Donation, for example, clients from around the world searched an online database of donors, complete with name, SAT scores, and glossy photos of both the donor and her own family. They could meet the donor if they chose to and even arrange for occasional contact after their child was born. Although the center’s Beverly Hills location led to an apparent cluster of blonde and blue-eyed eggs, it also offered harder-to-find types, including Jewish, red-headed, and South Asian prospects.