Before an appointment with a nurse, Sarah Wilson’s knowledge of egg freezing had been gleaned from Hollywood films “where they just put it all in the freezer” and Facebook ads for private clinics, which she describes as “disinformation”.
But the topic had become prevalent among the 32-year-old’s female friends, who view it as an insurance policy. “To give ourselves as many options as possible”, explained Wilson.
The egg-freezing process was paid for by Wilson’s employer, Okta, the digital identity specialist, as part of its policy that covers up to $5,000 of expenses related to fertility treatment and adoption. “My mum was a bit blown [away] that it was offered by my workplace,” she admitted.
Egg-freezing cycles are one of the fastest growing treatments in the UK, according to the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority (HFEA), which calculates there were 11 times more egg-freeze cycles in 2021 (4,215) than in 2011 (373). Though this is still a small proportion (4 per cent) of fertility treatments.
Okta is one of a rapidly growing number of companies offering egg freezing as part of a suite of reproductive benefits for staff. Mercer, the consultancy, says that in 2022, 16 per cent of US companies with 500 or more employees offered it, up from 11 per cent two years before. More than a quarter of larger employers, with 5,000 or more employees, provided it. Last year, Cooley, the law firm, announced a “fertility and family-forming benefit” worth up to £45,000, including in vitro fertilisation, adoption services and egg freezing. US bank Goldman Sachs offers up to $20,000 under its Pathways to Parenthood scheme.
Big tech companies were among the first to include egg freezing as a benefit in 2014. Then the likes of Apple and Facebook were criticised for dystopian perks encouraging women to put babies on hold so they could devote their most fertile years to their careers. But a US study from 2020 in AJOB Empirical Bioethics concluded that such offers did not pressure women to delay childbearing — women typically cited not having a partner, or the desire to achieve their social and career goals first, for pushing parenting back.
Research from the Journal of Applied Psychology warned that as a recruitment tactic, offering egg freezing could backfire if interpreted wrongly. It advised employers to communicate the benefit carefully, so as not to appear to “nudge towards personal-life sacrifice”, while also making sure employees could access it. Employers could avoid advertising it to prospective employees, for example.
Wilson’s enthusiasm for the perk indicates a possible generational shift in attitudes. Kate Ryder, chief executive of the virtual fertility service, Maven Clinic, says “millennials and Gen Z [expect] some level of coverage”. In part, this is driven by more open discussion about reproductive struggles. “You can see this on Reddit threads,” says Ryder. “When people are telling their fertility stories of, ‘Oh, I’m 39 and I wish someone had told me to freeze my eggs when I was 32 because I don’t have as many eggs now’.”
There are also changes in workplace attitudes to previously private issues. Last year, UK family law firm Burgess Mee introduced a new role: fertility officer, to help employees navigate work while dealing with issues around fertility — troubles to conceive, miscarriage, as well as pregnancy and family leave. Natalie Sutherland, the partner appointed to the role, says: “If we’re open [we] can effect change [and find] ways to make it better.”
Professor Geeta Nargund, medical director of Create Fertility, a clinic based in the City of London, argues that offering egg freezing as a workplace benefit helps younger employees who may otherwise struggle to afford it. “The costs of private treatment can act as a barrier.” Encouraging women to freeze their eggs when they are younger improves the “chance of success further down the line”, she says.
But the increase in awareness — and demand — has also been shaped by “aggressive marketing strategies by IVF clinics, egg banks, and standalone clinics,” according to one study by the Journal of Ethnobiology, which claims [advertising] egg freezing to women as a “fertility insurance policy”, increases their hopes “beyond reason”.
Ryder says lay-offs at tech companies have spurred some female employees to investigate freezing their eggs while they still have access to the perk. Lockdowns also triggered assessments of life priorities, while also, for some, keeping their dating life on hold.
She agrees private clinics and Instagram advertising can give false hope, but notes the most popular strand of the benefit is investigating the process and speaking to a specialist. Among members looking at egg freezing, the majority (nearly 70 per cent) come to Maven to learn more.
Despite photos of bonny babies in Instagram advertising, Nargund says “egg freezing is no silver bullet . . . success cannot be guaranteed.” HFEA reports that the birth rate for women using their own eggs is about 18 per cent.
Wilson is relatively sanguine. “I’m not trying to hide the fact that I want to have children at some point. This is an insurance policy, but it might not work.”
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