Women Are Spending Up to $20,000 to Freeze Their Eggs. Is It Worth It?

When Meg He froze her eggs last year as a 29th birthday present to herself, she snapped a selfie for posterity. Wearing a surgical cap and gown, the startup cofounder posted the photo on Instagram from her hospital bed, looking elated, proud, and above all, confident in the decision she was making. Her caption was even more enthusiastic: “After 25 injections in 12 days, 10 blood tests, 6 ultrasounds…these MEGglets are so ready to come out today!” she wrote. Looking back, Meg calls the experience “one of the most empowering things” she’s ever done. The popularity of genetic testing services like 23andMe proves people want more information about how their bodies work, and how they can ensure a healthier future. Meg considers egg freezing a logical continuation of this trend, and as an early adopter, she sees her decision to participate as a social good; a way to help it hit critical mass. As for the cost? “I plunked it on a credit card,” she says. “I’m going to worry about it in a year’s time.” Assisted reproductive technology isn’t new. In vitro fertilization (IVF)—a procedure that takes eggs from a woman’s ovaries and combines them with sperm in a little petri dish—has been around since 1981, when the first “test tube baby” was born in the U.S. But egg freezing, which stores the eggs for future fertilization, sort of like IVF on retainer, is still a new frontier. The ...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: fertility looking forward Source Type: news