i thank bob owesen kirk and david cross, watch their show on netflix. "nightline" is they're gorgeous, sporty, smart, in demand. the life of an egg donor can be lucrative and risky. >> morning. >> good morning. >> why hopeful couples have paid these women up to $100,000 for the perfect genetic match. plus just call her super serena. tennis champ serena williams stops an alleged cell phone thief in her tracks, caught on video, as she encourages others to follow her lead. confronting a criminal can turn dangerous fast. so how do you know when to make a move? and gwen stefani and blake shelton both newly single confirming they're gonna take things to the next level. ♪ baby i'm gonna >> how their new love blossomed

behind the scenes of "the voice." but first the "nightline 5." >> hey, amanda. sorry to bother you but i've got to take a sick day. >> moms don't take sick days, moms take dayquil severe. the nondroutsy coughing, aching, fever, sore throat, stuffy head, no sick days medicine. >> it's our biggest sale at jcpenney. the entire store's on sale. get $10 off when you spend $25 or more with coupon. plus get amazing big buys on sweaters for her and boots and shoe for her. jcpenney. when it fits you feel it. >> number one in 60 seconds.

good evening. tonight a very personal look at what it's like to be an egg donor. to some it may seem like easy money but the process is invasive. risky. and raises ethical questions

when so-called premier candidates can command up to six figures for their donation. abc's abbie boudreau brings us inside the competitive, sometimes lucrative marketplace. >> going to have my 11-day ultrasound. >> reporter: 33-year-old wendy gerrish has been here just about every day for the past week. >> let's look at the right ovary first. the blacks are the follicles. >> reporter: wendy is not pregnant. she's donating her eggs for $20,000. donor eggs are in high demand. allowing attractive, intelligent women like wendy to command big fees for their desirable genes. >> this looks fantastic. >> yay, good job, ovaries. >> reporter: she's a tall brunette acupuncturist with a graduate degree. this is her seventh donation. >> what's it like to have your eggs in such high demand? >> pretty awesome. i feel pretty valuable. >> okay. i'm a good procreator.

>> reporter: she has 11 biological children all over the world. one is her own. what inspired you to want to do this? >> my way of being rewarded is to give. one day i just decided, like, yeah. i want to do that. i want to help a family have children. >> there's wendy. >> oh, there she is. >> there's lovely wendy. that was the first picture of saw of her. and i thought, oh, she looks so wonderful. >> reporter: shelley smith runs a los angeles-based egg agency called the egg donor program. where she pairs hopeful parents desperate to have children with beautiful, accomplished women like wendy. willing to help them have the baby of their dreams -- for a price. >> this is my harvard grad right here. >> reporter: there's a careful screening process. only 5% make the cut. >> the premier donors get a little bit higher fee and it's usually based on higher education, great s.a.t. scores. invariably when we put up a really beautiful donor who's also smart and has other qualities, we get calls

immediately. i call it the feeding frenzy. >> is she pretty smart? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: it's a lucrative, competitive industry. some donors commanding as much as $50,000 for their eggs, sparking controversy over how much is too much. >> the highest fee that any of our donors have gotten was six figures from a family -- >> meaning? 100, 200? >> $100,000. >> that goes straight to the donor? >> straight to the donor. >> reporter: ethical guidelines set by the american society for reproductive medicine say compensating a donor more than $10,000 is not appropriate. fertility specialist dr. eric widra agrees. >> we worry that they're exposing themselves to risk just because the price is right. and we worry that that creates additional incentives to maybe be untruthful about their history or unrealistic about the expectations of going through treatment. >> reporter: shelley's agency and many like hers have their reasons for not following the guidelines. >> why not have a cap? >> doctors don't have a cap.

agencies certainly make money at it. why do the donors have to have a certain amount that's right for them to get paid when nobody else has any kind of cap? >> what do you say to critics who think this is borderline unethical, that this is all about designer babies? >> i don't think these are designer babies. if you think about it, when you pick someone to marry, you're picking the genetics for your child as well. why can't you kind of look for those qualities in an egg donor who's going to help you build your family? >> i'm going to do my two injections tonight. >> reporter: for the well-compensated donors there is a physical price. donating eggs can be a long, painful, risky process. >> sometimes it feels like i need five hands to do all this. >> reporter: during the next 15 days, wendy will take a cocktail of medications designed to boost the number of eggs that the doctor can extract at one time. >> what do you say to people who think, you're not really donating eggs, you're selling your eggs? >> you're dedicating months of your time, sacrificing part of

yourself, your body. it's work. >> this is one of the things that i always get with the fertility medications is migraine headaches. getting pretty bad right now. >> reporter: wendy visits her doctor almost daily to ensure she doesn't have a bad reaction to the medication. >> day eight of my medications -- at this point in the process, you really start to feel your ovaries. they're growing. i mean, at least two, three, four times their size. >> reporter: when the day comes to have her eggs removed, she's put under general anesthesia. >> there's always that little bit of risk. >> just a few more minutes. beautiful, jody. success. >> reporter: this difficult process can be a lifeline, giving many women their only shot at getting pregnant. michelle bader got married at 43 and immediately started trying

for a family. >> i'm thinking, i'm getting pregnant on my honeymoon. >> like, let's do this. >> of course. that's what happens. >> you didn't? >> did not. and i didn't the month after. or the month after. >> reporter: she visited multiple fertility doctors and tried ivf with her own eggs. but still wasn't able to conceive. >> emotionally at that point, what was it like? >> i lost a lot of tears. i was depressed. i turned inward. >> reporter: michelle didn't realize that getting pregnant at her age would be so hard. by age 40, some women only have a 2% to 5% chance of having a baby naturally. >> the media doesn't tell you. the actors or actresses that have their kids later in life, they don't tell you that they had donor eggs. so i guess you see it and it's around you and you think, if they can, i can. >> at what point did you realize that having an egg donor was going to be your solution? >> i went to everyone and did

everything that somebody recommended in order to help me get a baby. i did it all. and at some point you're just like -- i want a baby more than i want my own dna. i want to be a mom. and that's when you say, i think i need to do the donor route. >> reporter: michelle says once she accepted it, the process of finding a donor consumed her. >> and then all of a sudden i'd be like looking on the street going, she could be my egg donor. she could be my egg donor. she looks like me, she's 20. >> what were some of the things you were looking for in a donor? >> i wanted somebody that was similar to me. medical history was important to me too. >> reporter: after scouring agencies for different donors, she says she found the right match at an agency in beverly hills. >> it's like i was dating online. i said, let's try all of these places and let's see what we get. and really early on i saw a girl

that spoke to me. like she just had these angelic, beautiful features. and i'm like, that's her. >> reporter: michelle finally got pregnant. she says she paid $7,000 to the donor and another $7,500 to the agency who matched them. adding in the doctor and legal fees, she says she paid more than $20,000. >> was it worth it? >> for sure. every cent. you don't think about all that anymore. >> reporter: michelle gave birth to twins, rosie and asher, thanks to that egg donor, at the age of 45. >> the moment the nurse brings the babies over to you and you hold them in your arms for that first time, what's that like? >> i'm a mom. i'm finally a mom. like, it happened. i am going to say, that's my son. that's my daughter. somebody is going to call me mom. >> do you like them when they're

cooked or raw like this? >> raw like that. >> reporter: michelle doesn't want to fuel the misconceptions about conceiving children later in life. >> people say to me, oh, you were 46 when you had these kids? i'd be like, yeah, i had egg donor. i feel like i have to justify it in some way. or explain it to them. >> what are you cleaning? >> clean the house. >> if i could help somebody out their story or be comfortable with their situation then i want to help that. it doesn't need to be taboo. >> how grateful are you for this egg donor? >> she for sure is my angel. she made it possible. these girls that do this, they made it possible for our dreams to be reality. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm abbie boudreau in los angeles. up next, stop thief! serena williams was almost the victim of a crime until she took matters into her own hands.

and new couple alert, blake shelton and gwen stefani. shelton and given stefani. ♪ welcome to the most social car we've ever designed. the 2015 nissan murano. recipient of autopacific's best-in-class vehicle satisfaction award. now get great deals on the nissan murano.

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here's a tip for thieves, do not try to steal from a professional athlete. tennis goddess serena williams is being celebrated off the court for her superhero alter ego. in a dramatic incident all caught on camera. but should you risk your own safety for the safety of your belongings? before the rest of us mere mortals follow her lead, here's abc's t.j. holmes. >> reporter: she's one of the greatest athletes the world has ever known. >> game, set, match serena williams. >> reporter: but this week serena williams had to flex some different muscles. the 34-year-old superstar not chasing after tennis balls, chasing after an alleged cell phone thief. take a look at this surveillance video. you see the 21-time grand slam

champ sitting down to dinner tuesday at mission chinese, a trendy star-studded restaurant in san francisco. her phone is sitting out on the chair next to her. now check out the man leaning against the counter. >> you're in a restaurant, you're having fun, not paying attention to your surroundings. that's what these guys are looking for. >> reporter: acting casually he appears to swipe her phone off the chair and take off. the tennis star reacts almost immediately. she leaps up, chases after the alleged thief, quickly catches up, and confronts him outside. >> once i reached the door i saw that she had -- she was talking to the guy. >> reporter: serena reportedly asked the man if he mistakenly took the wrong phone. she says he hesitates then sheepishly admits he did because it was so confusing in the restaurant. >> she said she thought that was the best approach so that she could avoid any conflict with him. and i just said, good job. >> reporter: for serena williams, her run-in with a suspected thief was a moment of triumph. williams recounting the whole incident on facebook leaving her

followers with some advice. always listen to your superhero inner voice. just because you're a lady, don't be afraid to step up to any challenge and not be a victim but a hero. the superstar posting this photo of herself wearing that classic "s." it was maybe a bit of payback for the 2 million americans who had their phones stolen last year. it's been dubbed apple picking. thieves walking away with people's phones by any means necessary. of course celebrities like williams may have more at stake, according to former new york cop joe giacalone. >> they want a celebrity's phone? something like that with all the information? what people put on their cell phones, photographs, videos, some of them inappropriate. so these are things that they're making big money on. so that could always be an impetus to do this kind of stuff. >> reporter: it's not just celebrities playing crime stopper. apparently chasing after suspected thieves may be in our dna. watch this alleged thief grab a cell phone from an unsuspecting

pedestrian in new york city. without missing a beat the woman chases after him, followed by a man riding on a city bike. in fact, abc's "what would you do" hired actors to play thieves at a coffee shop going for a stranger's laptop. >> excuse me, sorry to bother you. >> that's all right. >> i'm just working on my laptop, i've got to run outside. look after it for me? that would be awesome. thank you so much. thank you. >> reporter: several times during the course of the day normal people in everyday normal situations going after the suspected property thieves. >> excuse me! excuse me! excuse me! hey! that's not yours. no. he asked us to watch the computer. >> that's my friend, he told me to grab it. >> can i just make sure? he asked us -- >> are you kidding me? >> no, i'm not kidding you. >> i wasn't letting him walk away with that computer, wasn't happening. not on my watch. >> reporter: of course, these

situations like williams' went off without a hitch. but encounters with cell phone thieves aren't always civil. giacalone says advances in technology are now making it less necessary to chase people down. >> i don't understand the idea behind why criminals want these the way they can be traced, kill switches for cell phones. all these other types of thins. you know, listen. the more of these guys get arrested you're going to start seeing a lot less of these types of crimes. >> reporter: which begs the question, is chasing after a thief necessarily a good idea? >> when it comes to your property, it's not worth your life. it can always be replaced. and listen. the idea behind this whole thing is to make sure you enjoy yourself but also make it so you keep yourself safe. >> reporter: what can you do to keep your belongings safe? >> first thing everybody has to be mindful of their surroundings. you're at a bar, a restaurant, out on the street, wherever it may be, things can change in a second. try to avoid distractions. like burying your head in your cell phone. don't carry checkbooks, don't

carry social security cards or any other identifying things. >> reporter: the moral of this story for be-be thieves, if you're going to steal a phone, maybe just maybe it shouldn't belong to serena williams. >> i think that she was very brave. she could set like an example for people. >> when you first saw that video and you first saw her reaction, what did you think? >> she's a sports athlete, she's in great shape. but you know what, you don't know who you're going up against or what you're dealing with. >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm t.j. holmes in new york. up next, newly single blake shelton and gwen stefani confirming their relationship. watching football together is great... ...but i think women would agree... ...huddling with their man after the game is nice too. the thing is, about half of men over 40 have some degree of erectile dysfunction. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection.

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finally tonight, call it cross-genre romance. country music's golden boy blake shelton split from country's golden girl miranda lambert, stepping out with punk princess gwen stefani who broke up with rocker husband gavin rossdale. abc's mara ski aftercampo takes us behind the scenes of the new budding romance. >> when you're sweet you're so sweet. >> oh. you never said something like that to me before. >> reporter: two superstar coaches of "the voice" are turning their chairs for each other. rumors were swirling for weeks that country crooner blake shelton and rocker gwen stefani were more than co-workers. they were seen out and about at parties over halloween weekend. >> yeah. >> who's blake? >> blake shelton. >> the country guy? >> yeah. >> reporter: in an interview with ryan seacrest stefani

dodged questions about a potential relationship. >> i read these stories about the two of you. are those true or not true? >> i'm not going to answer that right now. i think i've given up enough of myself this morning to you. i think he's hot, don't you? >> reporter: just hours before shelton performed at the country music association awards wednesday, the rumors were confirmed. representatives for both stars telling abc news they are dating. stefani was spotted in nashville holding hands with shelton at a cma after party. both stars announced marriage breakups this year. >> they really bonded over their broken marriages. this is really how they became such good friends. >> reporter: stefani and her husband gavin rossdale called it quits after being married 13 years. shelton splitting with miranda lambert after four years of marriage. country's former power couple did not go unnoticed at the cmas. >> on a completely unrelated topic, howdy, blake. >> reporter: while he may be a

little bit country and she a little bit rock 'n' roll, for now music's newest cross-over couple seems to be harmonizing in a perfect duet. for "nightline," i'm mara schiavocompo in new york. >> harmonizing, get it? thanks for watching abc news. tune into "good morning america" tomorrow. as always we're online 24/7 on our "nightline" facebook page and abcnews.com.

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