How do you like your eggs? Donated! Hey, for a cool $5,000 during this recession, less periods sounds like a win-win kinda situation. And that’s why IVF donation clinics across the country claim their phones are ringing off the hook.

Looking to make a quick (or not so quick and kind of painful) buck in the recession? New York State is now offering stipends of up to $10,000 to women who donate their eggs to stem-cell research. Researchers are enthralled by this idea, as it means more experimental eggs for them, but some critics fear this new egg market will lead to the exploitation of vulnerable women.

An increasing number of women are trying to sell their eggs to earn cash during the financial crisis. An attractive, well-educated, healthy, twentysomething woman can get as much as $10,000 for donating her eggs, but is the money worth the headache and time it takes to be accepted as a donor?

All manner of experts are asserting that the wheels have come off our already craptacular economy and no imminent signs of an upturn are apparent. Massive layoffs across all sectors are forcing even the most resourceful among us to tighten belts and come up with innovative ways to earn extra scratch. Which is why it’s not altogether shocking that in the midst of this fiscal catastrophe, there’s been a marked uptick in women signing on to donate eggs. At roughly $8000 a throw, it certainly seems like a viable option for fertile ladies, and an act that was once relegated to cash-strapped college girls looking for ways to pay off their debt has spread to folks with more pedestrian monetary needs, like making rent.