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How Human Guinea Pigs Get Paid

Yes, it's true. Professional human guinea pigs get paid for participating in medical experiments. It reminds me of the scene from the movie Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, in which the father explains to his fifty children that he can't afford to feed them any longer. "It's medical experiments for the lot of you," he announces, and all the children are sad (as they sing the infamous "sperm" song).

In real life it isn't so bad according to those that do this for a living. In some cases you simply take a drug for a while, have a few blood tests done, and get paid. That certainly sounds easy enough.

Medical, health and psychological research requires a steady supply of humans for testing. Trials and experiments can be for testing of new drugs, new medical devices, or even new psychological therapies. They can also be general research into various diets, exercise routines or other things related to health or medicine. Volunteers - the human guinea pigs - who participate in the various trials, tests and experiments get paid.

Here's a video on volunteering for medical trials:

For example, in researching the topic for this page, I came across a study that was done on the benefits of a diet based on what ancient hunter-gatherers ate. The volunteers used for this study were paid $200 and given all the food they were to eat for three weeks. Daily blood testing was one of the requirements, and nothing else could be eaten during this time, but the subjects were otherwise free to live their lives normally.

Now, that is an example of a relatively low-paying job for research participants (which is a nice term for guinea pigs). Of course, in addition to the $200, the participants did save the money they would have otherwise spent on food for those three weeks. Every study, trial or test has its own budget and pay-scale. Sometimes it will hardly seem worth your while. On the other hand, there are some people that make a living at this.

For example, in another study, subjects were paid $9,000 for participating in three weeks of asthma research. This was much more intrusive. In fact, it required having a tube down the throat for much of the time. You probably couldn't do this one if you had a regular job. But $3,000 per week is decent pay if you have nothing else going on. The requirements of various tests will obviously vary, and the pay varies greatly as well.

The website www.gpgp.net (guinea pigs get paid) has info on drug trials and other studies that you can get paid to participate in. How else can you find these kinds of opportunities? Here are a few ideas:

1. Try calling major research facilities and simply asking if they need volunteers for any upcoming studies.

2. Search online by typing in the various types into a search engine ("dietary research volunteers," or "cancer drug trials"). You can start by looking for any studies that are relevant to conditions you already have. If you have diabetes, for example, you might find a better way to treat it even as you get paid.

3. Find a group of people that participates in these trials and experiments regularly if you want to do this more than once. Hanging out with the other human guinea pigs, at least in an online forum is a great way to hear about new opportunities (and you might hear the occasional horror story as well).

Note: I also have a true account of the experiences of a test subject in Amsterdam on the website EveryWayToMakeMoney.com, and another page on one person's experiences participating in paid studies.


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