The UC Santa Barbara Undergraduate Journal of History

Advertisements targeted at intended parents and potential donors use women’s bodies to market a commodity—a female egg. Human eggs became commodified shortly after the first baby was conceived via egg donation and must be understood as a broader shift in reproductive medicine. This shift, combined with the increased cost of education, pushes women to potentially commit to invasive hormone injections, surgeries, and the risk of cancer in exchange for financial compensation. As assisted reproductive practices gained traction in the 1980s, demand for donor eggs surged, and private agencies—not clinics— stepped in as middlemen. To meet the demand, unregulated private egg agencies thrived under limited oversight and targeted college-aged women with ads that did not properly inform women of the risks. In this landscape, human eggs were no longer biological matter but high-value objects exchanged in the free market. Companies, namely YourEggs, adjusted to the societal shift to social media through campaigns targeted at college-aged women by transitioning to a reel format accompanied by trendy audio. While this attracted many to become egg donors, this opportunity was not equally accessible to people of all backgrounds. Between 1990 and 2025, the human egg transformed from biological matter to a commodified product marketed through advertising campaigns targeted at financially vulnerable college-age women. Through a study of media representation, legal records, donor databases, and company advertising, this paper will show that the egg donation industry perpetuates existing racial and economic inequities to create a commercial market that reflects broader patterns of reproductive stratification.