HUNDREDS of women who have given away half their eggs in exchange for cut-price fertility treatment have been left childless, while other women have given birth to their genetic offspring.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that in 770 fertility cycles, women who traded half their eggs for treatment have failed to give birth while the women they gave their eggs to have had their biological children.

The figures reveal the heartbreak that can result from the egg-share deals, which some doctors claim prey on vulnerable childless women who cannot afford to pay for fertility treatment.

Professor Ian Craft, director of the London Fertility Centre, said: “In 18 years’ time some of these women will still be barren and they could have their biological children, born to other women, knocking on their doors. These women would feel absolutely awful.

“Many of these women could have had babies if they had been able to keep all their eggs. Doctors are preying on infertile women in order to solve a shortage of donor eggs. I believe these women who have been left childless will suffer psychological problems as a result of giving half their eggs away.”

In exchange for giving away half their eggs, women pay as little as one-sixth of the cost of an in vitro fertilisation (IVF) cycle. The normal cost of a cycle is £3,000-£3,500. Women who agree to give away half their eggs will be treated for as little as £600, while women who receive donated eggs need to pay up to £6,000 per IVF cycle.

Figures released by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority show that of the 4,140 egg-share cycles that took place between 1999 and 2005, 770 resulted in only the women who received the eggs having babies.

Professor Brian Lieberman, medical director of Manchester Fertility Services, a private fertility clinic, said: “The term ‘egg sharing’ is spin. It should be called ‘egg trading’. The eggs are not being donated; they are being traded for treatment that would not otherwise have been available.”

But many women who share their eggs say they are motivated by helping others as well as qualifying for cut-price treatment. Louise, 34, an administrator from north Manchester, had mixed feelings when she learnt another woman was pregnant after receiving her eggs, although she had still failed to conceive after two IVF cycles.

Louise says that, if she never becomes a mother, she hopes she will still not resent giving half of her eggs away.

“I imagine from time to time I would wonder how they are, what they are doing, whether they have gone to university,” she said. “But there is no emotional attachment. They are just eggs. I am not giving a baby away.”

These figures, released by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority under the Freedom of Information Act, show that hundreds of women who have given away their eggs in exchange for cut price treatment have been left childless while others have given birth to their genetic offspring.

Times Recommends

• Anne Darwin's performance of a lifetime
• Renaissance for canals as new boaters come aboard
• Case study: forced to marry a cousin at 17