Paid For “Playing The Role Of An Employed Fertile Human Body”

There are so many things we can make our bodies do in exchange for cash! We can trade our blood for money, and our hair, and our sperm. Though it requires more invasive procedures, we can also, as Sarah Jean Alexander reminds us in Lenny #5, sell our eggs.

If we have the stomach for it, that is.

instead of routinely bleeding out the immature egg follicles like usual, I harvested and sold them for $8,000.

The paycheck was the only thing I cared about when I filled out the very first application. Then it became an unrealistic bonus at the end, one I sort of imagined I would never actually receive. It became less about the money during the process and more like I was playing the role of an Employed Fertile Human Body for an Intangible Future Mother. I felt jaded in a way that removed me from why I was doing it — I just was. And I had to keep going.

By the end of the process, I had learned more about the morals of donating and the effects of the hormones inside of my body, but the money was, whether at the forefront of my conscience or periodically backlogged, always my driving force

What’s the equivalent of caveat emptor — not “buyer beware,” but “seller beware”? As Alexander goes through this months-long journey, she parts ways with her job, her boyfriend, her ability to poop, exercise, or have sex, and some of her sanity. Three-quarters of the way through, as the story becomes full-on body horror, Alexander reflects, “The $8,000 started to look laughable.”

I’m more crying than laughing myself, but yeah.

RELATED: Lots of love for ladyblogs as Hearst teams up with Lenny and Time Inc. buys both HelloGiggles and xoJane.

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