You sat down with a 20-page contract drafted by lawyers who've never met you.
Those lawyers work for the agency, not for you.
Here are seven clauses that quietly cost donors everything when left unchallenged.
1. Compensation Forfeiture Terms
Most contracts include forfeiture language that strips your payment if the cycle is cancelled.
Cancelled cycles happen for medical reasons entirely outside your control.
Negotiate partial compensation tied to each completed phase, not just successful retrieval.
Your time and injections have value even when outcomes change.
Before You Lose Forfeiture Pay, Find a Program That Compensates Every Phase
2. Anonymity Limitations
Your contract may promise anonymity, but consumer DNA testing has made that promise hollow.
23andMe doesn't care what your clinic's legal team drafted in 2019.
Demand language that explicitly addresses DNA registry contact and outlines your options.
Choose your arrangement, whether open, semi-open, or anonymous, with eyes fully open.
Before You Sign Anonymity Terms, Know What DNA Registries Can Still Do
3. Number of Children Conceived
Agencies rarely volunteer how many families can use your eggs from one cycle.
Some donors later discover multiple children exist across households they never knew about.
You have every right to ask for a limit written directly into your contract.
If the agency resists, that resistance tells you something important.
Ask for a Recipient Limit in Writing Before Your Eggs Leave the Clinic
4. Medical Decision Authority During Stimulation
Some contracts give clinicians broad authority to adjust your protocol without requiring your re-consent.
Donors with very high egg yields sometimes later question whether stimulation went dangerously far.
Insist on language requiring your explicit approval before any significant protocol changes occur.
Your ovaries are yours, even mid-cycle.
Stop Protocol Changes From Happening Without Your Approval Mid-Cycle
5. Long-Term Health Follow-Up Obligations
Standard contracts end the clinic's responsibilities the moment retrieval is complete.
You are discharged, compensated, and essentially forgotten.
Negotiate specific follow-up checkpoints at three months, six months, and one year post-retrieval.
A program that genuinely cares about you will not balk at putting that in writing.
What Donors With Long-Term Support Get That Standard Programs Never Offer
6. Frozen Embryo Disposition Rights
Your eggs become embryos, and those embryos can outlive the original intentions behind them.
Recipients divorce, pass away, or simply change their minds after embryos are created.
Without clear contract language, your genetic material floats in legal limbo indefinitely.
Ask explicitly what happens to unused embryos and whether you receive any notification.
What Happens to Unused Embryos, and How to Get That Answer Before You Sign
7. Legal Fee Responsibility
Agencies sometimes structure contracts so donors bear their own legal review costs.
That means the agency's lawyer is the only lawyer in the room who got paid.
Negotiate for independent legal counsel fees to be covered by the agency or intended parents.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) actually supports this practice as an ethical standard.
A contract is only as strong as the advisor who reviewed it on your behalf.
Egg donation can be genuinely meaningful and financially significant, with compensation ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 per cycle at reputable programs like MyEggBank.
But meaningful doesn't mean unprotected.
Every clause above is negotiable before you sign, and none of them will negotiate themselves.
Why Independent Legal Review Before Signing Protects Every Dollar You Earn