A woman nearly died after selling her eggs on the black market.

A Chinese teenage girl suffered ovarian damage after surgery to have 21 eggs removed and sold to a middleman.

Girls who sell their eggs will be screened for education level, height, blood type, or anything else that can prove they have good genes. Photo: CCTV.

According to a newly released report by the Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission, the victim was a female student at a technical school in the province who was acquainted with an employee of Bei Er Qi Yuan Science and Technology Company.

Her friends told her about the money she could earn by selling her eggs, and the student agreed to sell her eggs for $2,200 for a single egg retrieval surgery. She received continuous injections for more than 10 days to stimulate egg production and underwent the egg retrieval surgery last October, SCMP reported on July 27.

However, three days later, she became seriously ill and had to be hospitalized. Doctors said both of the student's ovaries were severely damaged. Two employees of Bei Er Qi Yuan were arrested in April and sentenced to 22 months in prison for practicing medicine illegally.

This is the first criminal case stemming from an investigation by the Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission into the illegal trafficking of human eggs.

The female student stated that she and three other girls were transported by truck to an apartment for surgery, with the windows covered by curtains so they didn't know where they were being taken. Women involved in selling eggs on the black market are often young, possibly university students or high school girls. They are usually lured into selling their eggs by brokers without fully understanding the harm the surgery will cause to their bodies.

In June, a Chinese newspaper reported that egg brokers in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, often lured female university students with "attractive appearances" and "high academic achievements" into selling their eggs for 30,000 to 80,000 yuan per egg (US$4,500-11,900).

According to a study conducted four years ago by the China Population Association, one in eight couples in mainland China is infertile, equivalent to 40 million people.

Chinese law prohibits medical organizations or doctors from participating in the search for and sale of sperm, eggs, or surrogacy, but it does not prohibit other organizations, rendering many police efforts to crack down on the black market ineffective. The Guangdong Provincial Health Commission has called on government departments to strengthen cooperation to crack down on the illegal trade of women's eggs and surrogacy.

"Surrogacy organizations split the service chain into multiple segments. Offices, egg retrieval sites, laboratories, and waiting areas are all located in different places and managed by different staff," according to a statement from the Guangdong Provincial Health Commission. "Therefore, the operations of these organizations take place in many different regions, in secrecy, and are very tightly controlled. Government ministries need to cooperate and establish a long-term mechanism to combat this black market."

According to VNE