Years ago I belong to a Yahoo! loop for black women with infertility problems. A lot of the women who were looking for donor eggs told me that African American eggs were more expensive and more difficult to come by. Over the years a lot of people have expressed surprise when I told them that. I don’t know why they would, infertility is booming business and the laws of supply and demand rule. Contrary to popular belief, black women are not the ‘fertile Myrtles’ of yore. We actually have a higher rate of infertility than other groups (though interestingly enough, we’re more likely to have twins). Of course, that’s not openly discussed because there’s a lot less profit to be made off black women’s infertility. So the face of this particular issue remains overwhelmingly white. I can’t tell you how many people expressed amazement that I had fertility problems. Even worse, I had more than one tell me that if I’d married a black man I wouldn’t have a problem getting pregnant. Never mind that I was the only interracially married woman on that Yahoo! loop.

I was recently on Craig’s List looking at furniture and such and came across tons of ads for donor eggs. (No, this is not an option for us. We’re done with baby-making.) I thought it was interesting that white and Asian eggs topped out at $8k, but they were offering up to $10k for African American eggs. (No, I won’t comment on the irony. You’ll have to do that yourself.) Obviously, this is a horrifically invasive procedure and as someone who has actually been through fertility procedures I wouldn’t do it for ten times the money, but it is an interesting confirmation of what those ladies told me all those years ago.

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