Egg Bank Caters To People Looking To Grow Their Families

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Five-foot nine. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. A master's degree.

These may sound like qualities you'd see listed on a dating profile.

But similar rules apply when you're courting the perfect egg.

"They're educated. They're young. They're healthy," said Dr. Mark Denker, a reproductive endocrinologist and partner at the South Florida International Egg Bank in Boca Raton. "We want someone with a good family history. No genetic defects. Somebody that is healthy, non-drinker, non-smoker. No drugs and someone that is not overweight. We're looking for personality and of course, looks."

In a sterile room, protected by a sophisticated keypad, dozens of eggs from carefully screened donors are kept in tanks filled with liquid nitrogen.

Unlike in a fresh egg donation cycle, these eggs are frozen ahead of time, a somewhat recently perfected process, and parents-to-be can choose a donor by simply perusing a website that shows everything from photos and physical attributes, to whether the donors' eggs have resulted in successful pregnancies before.

Dr. Denker says freezing eggs for donation saves time and money.

It can also be fairly profitable for donors.

"I was in college. I was just going through the motions of life. It helped out financially with my college education at the time. But I also knew it was rewarding. I was doing something good for someone else. It was a win-win situation," said Jennifer Ingle.

Ingle is Dr. Denker's partner at the egg bank, and is Egg Donation Director for the Eggceptional Donor Group.

"I donated for 2 couples that both had twins," she told CBS4's Lauren Pastrana.

Ingle says she made $10,000 for each of her donations.

She says the South Florida International Egg Bank pays its approved donors a flat $7,000 fee.

But it's not unheard of for agencies or intended parents to sometimes pay different amounts based on certain, in-demand characteristics.

"One of the things that we've seen a lot is an increased desire for multi ethnic donors," Dr. Denker said.

Donors must have a healthy body mass index.

Meaning, for example, a woman who is 5'5" can't weigh more than 162 pounds if she wants to donate eggs.

And at this egg bank, they require donors to be between 21 and 31, with some education above a high school diploma.

"Every donor has a psychological evaluation in a session with a trained psychologist that is experienced with donations and talks to them about all these issues, so they really have a chance to think about it and know what they're getting into," Dr. Denker explains.

Now pregnant herself, Ingle says she has no regrets.

"I gave a cell. That's what I gave," she said. "If it wasn't for the love of those parents, that child wouldn't exist."

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine has guidelines against paying more for certain looks. According to its website, it's "already working with the FDA to develop regulations on donated reproductive tissues."

Dr. Denker says fresh egg donation cycles are still slightly more successful than frozen egg bank cycles.

But he says the pregnancy rates are improving every day.