NEW YORK (AFP) ― She is 44 and single, but journalist Sarah still dreams of having a child, while TV producer Susanah, 38, is waiting for her younger boyfriend to be ready.
To keep their hopes alive, these New York women have spent tens of thousands of dollars on freezing their eggs in a practice that has become increasingly popular.
Facebook recently began covering costs of egg freezing for employees and Apple will do the same starting in January.
Susanah jokes of taking advantage of the progress in medical science as an “insurance policy” even if the chances of conceiving are still stacked against her.
The younger the woman, the more fertile her eggs, and fertility drops rapidly after 35. So women freeze their eggs while there is still time, in order to use them later.
Sarah Elizabeth Richards was one of the first to take advantage of the technique, which the American Society for Reproductive Medicine considered experimental until 2012.
She froze her eggs eight times between the ages of 36 and 37, first in Canada where it was cheaper, and then in New York.
She has put aside 70 eggs, she told AFP in her tiny apartment in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
She used her savings. Her parents helped out. In total, she spent $50,000.
“It is an extreme amount of money to spend on something like this, but I always knew I wanted kids,” she said, adding that she is still looking for the perfect man.
“And when I thought, ‘where could I spend the money? A house, a vacation or a chance to have a family?’ it seemed like a very easy choice.”
She has written a book called “Motherhood Rescheduled: the New Frontier of Egg Freezing and the Women Who Tried It” and said putting aside her eggs gave her a “profound sense of relief.”
She knows her chances are slim but still hopes to have a child in the next two years by thawing the eggs and having in-vitro fertilization, which would cost thousands of dollars more.
She said egg freezing should not be done for the sake of a career, but welcomes debate about the problems of juggling a family and a career in a country where that is still difficult.
“Child care, maternity leave, this is a big American problem, but the answer is not to delay motherhood,” she said.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
