In this video, Mikhail Varshavski, DO — who goes by “Dr. Mike” on social media — reviews an alternative source of income: body parts.
Following is a transcript of the video (note that errors are possible):
Varshavski: Here’s how you can make money right now with no education or training, using only what’s in or on your body, while also making a positive impact on people’s lives. While it is illegal to sell organs and tissues in the United States, it turns out that there are at least 10 body parts and fluids that are legally bought and sold here in America every single day. Let’s take a look at how much you’re literally worth. Peewoop.
Hair. Where do you think wigs come from? Sure. Synthetic hair is common when bought with your run-of-the-mill Halloween costume, but many higher-end wigs are made with real human hair, because it looks and feels more authentic. The value of your hair will depend on a variety of factors, though, such as the color, length, thickness, and whether it’s ever been dyed, or if you were a heavy smoker.
And while hair donation isn’t as tightly regulated in the U.S. as blood plasma donations, there is definitely a marketplace online where you could make a few bucks for your locks. How much? Quick scans online show many sellers offering their hair for hundreds of dollars, with many others claiming they’ve sold their hair in the four-figure range. It’s important to note that while you can make money selling your hair, there are also plenty of options when it comes to donating your hair to organizations that make wigs for cancer patients like St. Baldrick’s, who I worked with in 2012.
Stool. It’s number two on the list and number two for you. Poop. Stool from certain individuals can contain microbes that are really valuable for medical research. Certain individuals is a bit of an understatement. However, as one high-end stool-buying pharmaceutical research company, Human Microbes, says that they’re in the market for the 0.1% of people who have the unique health markers to offer stool worth researching. Because the right stool is so rare, they’re now offering $500 per successful sample, meaning if you fit their unique profile, you could earn up to $180,000 a year, assuming you ship daily.
Semen. I’m assuming many of you who clicked on this video already knew you could donate semen for cash, as it’s been depicted in movies and on TV for decades. But the real life process might not be as funny as it is on screen. That’s because it’s highly unlikely you’d even get selected.
California Cryobank and Fairfax Cryobank, two of America’s largest sperm collection centers, only accept 1% of applicants due to low sperm counts, questionable health history, and many other factors like a prospective donors’ genetics. Applicants are also often turned down for superficial reasons such as being under a certain height, as women looking to buy sperm tend to be more interested in tall donors. That being said, if you make the cut, donors report having been paid around $125 per visit and you could donate up to twice a week.
Eggs. Men don’t get to have all the fun. Women can sell their eggs and do quite well in the process. Rules vary by state, but donors usually need to be between the ages of 21 and 35, and it helps if you’ve given birth before. If you’re accepted as a donor, you’ll be given a series of fertility drugs to increase the rate your body releases eggs. These eggs will be collected through a minor surgical procedure, at which point your contribution is complete. Bear in mind, while a child birth with your eggs will genetically be yours, legally the child belongs to the woman who carried it to term. Selling eggs is one of the most profitable things on this list with reputable institutions like NYU Langone Fertility Center offering $10,000 per successful donation.
Womb. While you wouldn’t be packing up your womb, putting it in a box, and dropping it off at the post office, you might be able to make a little money renting it out for a 9-month lease, acting as a surrogate to birth the baby. Surrogacy agencies and state laws will set the rules depending on where you live and the process can take a long time, beyond even the lengthy 9-month gestation period. You’ll need to pass numerous medical tests, pair with a set of parents, nail down the terms of a contract, and decide whether to use your own egg, known as a traditional surrogacy, or someone else’s egg, known as a gestational surrogacy. Then it’s 9 months of carrying a baby, plus the added fun of actually giving birth, which is a major medical event full of significant risk to your own health. As you can see, this is a complicated process, but that’s also why the earning potential is so high. Because contracts are negotiated, there is no fixed rate, but many surrogacy agencies advertise surrogates earning well upwards of $50,000 with added pay for things like monthly allowances, loss of wages due to bedrest, and other fees.
Breast milk. Your employment doesn’t need to stop once the baby is born as there is quite the market for breast milk as well. Many new mothers overproduce breast milk. Likewise, many mothers under-produce and are in need of some support.
One option is to head to your local milk bank to handle everything in person, but you can do this at home, too, with your own pump and storage containers with some organizations offering $1 per oz. The earning potential can be higher elsewhere, too, as free-market communities exist where you can list your breast milk for $2, $3, maybe $5 an oz, with some mothers turning their breast milk into a small business. Just make sure to be careful with this process as it’s a less regulated one.
Skin. When I say selling your skin, I don’t mean shedding and bringing it down to the local farmer’s market. Rather, there are countless stories of people selling their skin as real estate for advertising in the form of tattoos. Every now and then you’ll see this happen with boxers who compete in high-profile events where they show a lot of skin and have reportedly been paid tens of thousands of dollars to get henna tattoos of company logos and URLs on their bodies during fights.
You don’t need to be a pro athlete though. One woman infamously sold her forehead on eBay for 10 grand. In 2005, a man sold his forehead online for nearly 40 grand. A popular gym chain even reimbursed many for getting the company logo tattooed on their body. While there might not be a regulated marketplace to buy and sell your skin as a billboard, some clever marketing and salesmanship might net you a hefty paycheck if you’re willing to live with the consequences.
Blood plasma. Technically you can’t get paid to donate blood, but you can get paid to donate blood plasma, which is a straw-colored liquid that makes up 55% of your blood supply. There are few requirements depending on where you live, such as your age, size, and medical history. Be sure to read up on your state’s rules before you go to donate. Not to mention the U.S. is currently suffering a major plasma shortage due to the pandemic, so your plasma is more valuable than ever.
Plasma gets replaced in the body about every 24 hours, which means you’re allowed to donate up to twice a week. Talk about reliable income. This plasma gets used to develop new pharmaceutical treatments, help patients with immunodeficiencies, and even treat patients in emergencies. A quick search will show many places offering up to $500 for your first month of donations, while many regular donors report receiving about 40 bucks per visit.
Bone marrow. Where does blood and plasma get made? It’s actually produced inside your bones within the spongy bone marrow, which is another very valuable substance you can sell. But that wasn’t always the case. Bone marrow donations were illegal under the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act, but in 2011 a California court case ruled that because bone marrow is naturally replenishable and the process of extracting it has become much more tolerable, that it should be legalized.
Unfortunately, for patients in need of receiving a donation, finding a match can be difficult. As matches are most common within the same ethnic group, your odds of finding a bone marrow match as a white person are 79%, but if you’re Black that number falls to 29%.
There are two types of bone marrow donations, a surgical and a non-surgical option, so make sure you know which one you’re signing up for. Also, not every organization will pay for bone marrow, but those who can offer up to $700 for a 60-minute donation.
Your whole body. One of the more exciting ways to make a few bucks is by donating your whole body to clinical studies and trials, which are always taking place at hospitals, universities, and pharmaceutical companies. It’s very important to know what you’re getting into when signing up for a study, though, as you may be asked to test experimental treatments that could pose a risk to your health. Of course, you could also be instrumental in helping advance new treatments that could save countless lives.
While many studies are simply looking for a warm body, sometimes you can be uniquely qualified to participate as many studies are looking for subjects who have unique physical characteristics or are willing to push themselves to the extreme. Like Steve-O who got 2,000 bucks to participate in a dangerous medical study. Click here to listen to my interview with him all about it. A huge thanks for watching. As always, stay happy and healthy.
Mike Varshavski, DO, is a board-certified family physician and social media influencer with more than 10 million subscribers.
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