After going through the arduous and sometimes painful process of donating their eggs to a Bay Area fertility clinic, a growing number of women allege they were paid late or never paid at all by the clinic’s owner. 

Despite legal agreements with Lane Fertility stipulating they would be paid within three months of post-donation follow-up visits, nine separate women described being ghosted by Dr. Danielle Lane when their compensation was due.

While some of the women were eventually paid by Lane Fertility, they said that only happened after attorneys wrote demand letters to the clinic on their behalf.

“On this most recent cycle, I was counting on my compensation to pay for my schooling and pay off the remaining debt so I could sign up for more classes,” said Kaytlyn Becker, who said she wasn’t paid for her latest egg donation. “And I’ve missed that deadline.”

Becker, 24, donated for the first time three years ago, inspired to go through the process after someone close to her faced infertility. She chose to donate through Lane Fertility, which operates clinics in San Francisco and Novato, after coming across an ad for the clinic on social media, where Lane frequently posts videos encouraging women to donate their eggs.

“They ask you about your GPA, if you have any special talent, your health history, all sorts of stuff to see if you qualify for being an egg donor,” Becker said. “And if you pass the health background for genetic diseases, then they move you on to the next process.”

But Becker said the process takes a toll, describing hormone injections that led to side effects such as extreme bloating, cramps and headaches. 

While she alleged she was paid late after her first donation back in 2022, Becker decided to go through the process for a third time with Lane Fertility earlier this year, saying she signed an agreement with the clinic that would pay her $6,000 within 90 days of her post-donation follow-up visit. 

As of early September, Becker said that payment was five months behind schedule.

“They blocked my phone number,” Becker said. “They don’t respond to my emails. I am struggling to get in contact with Dr. Lane. And when I do get in contact with her, it’s just her saying, ‘We’ll pay you later, we’ll pay you later.’”

Becker said she was finally paid in September to Lane Fertility multiple times about her accusations, though the clinic never responded questions about Becker’s case and those of the other donors.

Becker is far from alone. Her story has been echoed by several other patients of Lane, some of whom traveled from other states to donate their eggs through the fertility clinic. 

“They never paid my medical debt,” one of them said. “And they never reimbursed me for transportation or the food costs that were fronted from out of pocket.” 

Another patient, speaking Spanish, said, “We go through pain with no reward.”

Several women said they were only paid after threatening Lane Fertility with legal action through a demand letter.

“I looked for an attorney and threatened to sue because I felt scammed,” another woman said, also speaking in Spanish. 

One donor said she wound up in the emergency room due to complications from her procedure. A written agreement showed the clinic agreed to assume financial responsibility to cover such complications through an insurance policy, but the woman said that never happened.

“I was just miserable,” she said. “It was a physically draining thing. It was very painful, poking your belly, getting full of hormones. And I feel like my body forever changed from that experience.”

Los Angeles-based attorney Dean Masserman has intervened on behalf of a growing number of Lane Fertility donors, writing demand letters to the clinic after he said they failed to pay his clients.

“I got a call from a donor who said I did this and Dr. Lane’s refusing to pay me,” Masserman said. “Then I got another call and another call. Now, I’m up to about 12 to 15 women, which means it’s not unintentional, it’s not negligence. She’s intentionally not paying these women.”

Lane’s alleged track record of stiffing donors also led the Florida-based egg donation agency Eggvise to sever ties with Lane Fertility.

“There is always an excuse,” said Eggvise founder and CEO Kilmar Ramirez. “I have confronted her over email, I have confronted her over the phone, and there’s always an excuse. She always has something to say, somebody else to blame about compensation or payments.”

For Ramirez, egg donations are personal. She said the compensation she received from donating her eggs years ago helped her migrate to the U.S. and start her business.

“Maybe you were going to get a car to go to a new job, maybe you are going to pay for your tuition, maybe you wanted to move to another part of the city with that compensation, and that compensation never gets to you,” Ramirez said.

A review of lawsuits filed in San Francisco found Lane has been sued at least 10 times for non-payment or breach of contract in recent years. Among those seeking to collect in court are Lane Fertility vendors, a former employee, and her landlord, who is actively attempting to evict her for months of unpaid rent, according to the civil complaint.

Court filings show Lane has denied the accusations against her in most of the lawsuits, though she’s been hit with at least a half-dozen judgements totaling close to $80,000 and has settled three other cases without an admission of guilt.

Years later, some of those plaintiffs said they’re still attempting to collect on their judgments. 

Lane’s clinic is now operating under a new name: Conception Fertility. Despite the controversy, Lane continues to advertise the clinic on social media, where she’s gained more than 100,000 followers. 

Becker said she hopes her message reaches all of them.

“You’re helping families achieve their dream of having a child,” Becker said. “Walking away feeling bitter about it is not something I want for anybody. It’s a special process and I want to protect women and have them be informed, because I wasn’t.”