If you’re a woman in your late twenties or beyond, if you have no life partner, or if you are in a relationship but not ready to start a family, you may have entertained egg freezing. There is even a budding egg biotech industry exploiting the “I fear it’s too late” conscious women: should you freeze your eggs or freeze your career.
That kind of framing may sounds cruel, but it’s an effective marketing strategy. Proponents of egg freezing also note the growing success rate of the latest egg freezing technique, although the data are somewhat sketchy. Although enough long-term studies have not yet been conducted,based on the rationale and studies available at this point, in all likelihood, freezing one’s eggs probably will turn out to be a wise move for certain women. But as for deciding who should do it and, importantly, at what age, the level of uncertainty is pretty high.
Almost impossible choice
In her article for Nautilus, Abby Rabinowitz covered all of the bases when it comes to the egg freezing dilemma. She described an “egg freezing cocktail hour” that she attended, hosted by Eggbanxx, a company that sells financing–egg freezing loans–and designed for yuppy-ish women. On its website, the company describes itself as “the first national network of doctors who offer egg freezing for fertility preservation and makes egg freezing affordable with easy, convenient financing.”
Eggbanxx cocktail hours and similar informational sessions are held frequently in major cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, and the company tweets announcements of upcoming sessions with attractive slogans like “Stop your clock: learn about egg freezing,” accompanied by cartoons of women who look like superheroes.
The freezing and financing services offers a range of services, not unlike plastic surgeons, or auto dealers, for that matter: Personal egg freezing concierge, trusted doctors, exclusive savings, financing with $0 down, priority appointment times, and of course “transparency,” whatever that means.
It all sounds very prudent and practical. Rabinowitz noted that the service was presented to the attendees as a kind of fertility insurance. Reading about the event, one cannot help but form an image of cocktail bar filled with characters from the turn-of-the-century TV series Sex and the City.
Rabinowitz explained the ups and downs of egg freezing (which you should read), but the basic take-home message is this: Egg preservation was introduced initially for women with health issues known to affect fertility progressively, a good example being endometriosis, and for those undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy (treatments that harm fertility). Now it’s for the every woman.
Eggbanxx promotes the treatment and its financing plan as fertility insurance, although is no guarantee that you’ll be able to get pregnant several years after the egg preservation date, when it comes time to use some of your preserved eggs. Nevertheless, the latest egg freezing technology is a major advance over previous approaches and the probability of success is much higher than it used to be. Thus, in the words of one doctor interviewed at the Eggbanxx cocktail hour, “Any option is better than no option.”
But, of course, the potential benefit of this type of “insurance” must be weighed against the drawbacks. These include potential health affects, such as a condition called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, resulting from the necessary hormone treatment, although the risk of this happening is fairly low. The key drawback for many is the cost. As explained by Sarah Elizabeth Richards, an egg freezing proponent, who wrote a Wall Street Journal essay lauding the procedure, despite available financing, the financial investment is substantial:
Between the ages of 36 and 38, I spent nearly $50,000 to freeze 70 eggs in the hope that they would help me have a family in my mid-40s, when my natural fertility is gone. For this baby insurance, I obliterated my savings and used up the money my parents had set aside for a wedding.
For Richards, the high cost risky investment was worth it. “It was the best investment I ever made,”, she wrote. But that was her own cost-benefit conclusion. Many women do not have the luxury to be in a position to make those kind of choices.
David Warmflash is an astrobiologist, physician, and science writer. Follow @CosmicEvolution to read what he is saying on Twitter.
