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For many childless couples, IVF treatment could not take place without a donated egg - but the regulations dictating how those eggs are collected vary widely across the world. In some countries, like the UK, payment is banned. But in the US women can earn thousands of dollars, with some more highly sought after eggs - for example from a highly educated Asian woman - costing up to $80,000.

So, while the medical advice is for a woman to donate eggs a maximum of six times in her lifetime - because hormone injections can impact on the body - some young women are doing it far more than this in order to fund their education or help with their finances.

Dr Diane Tober of the University of Alabama's Department of Anthropology has researched the situation for women in the USA and Spain. She's concerned that the practice isn't well enough regulated and prioritises profit over women's health.

"I've got some women in my study who've done as high as 19 cycles which is quite a hardship on the body. They didn't necessarily tell the clinics or the agencies they went through how many prior donations they'd undergone."

(Photo: A woman gives herself a hormone injection. Credit: Getty Images)

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