Does freezing eggs really give women ‘control’?

The setting was Fertility 2024, a global conference that took place in Edinburgh last week, bringing together scientists, medics and other specialist professionals. The theme was “Rethinking Reproduction”.

While the event’s primary focus was on new and improving ways to meet the demands of consumer-patients, a few speakers dug deeper into the underlying circumstances of those who seek assistance with having babies.

What was beyond the scope of such an event was analysis of the reasons why so many people are seeking reproductive assistance of any variety. This would, of course, require a different conference altogether – one with a focus on rethinking society.

It would need to start by exploring whether recent shifts are part of linear trends or pandemic-related anomalies. In the summer it was revealed the number of women in the UK opting to freeze their eggs had risen by 64% between 2019 and 2021, with some attributing this dramatic rise to Covid restrictions limiting social interactions.

READ MORE: Covid restrictions had 'long-term' impact on pregnant Scottish women

It makes sense that young, single women who aspire to be mothers but were being legally prevented from dating, let alone mating, would feel robbed of precious time.

The Guardian reported on the rise, noting that egg and embryo freezing were the “fastest-growing fertility treatments in the UK” as the top line of a story summarising a report from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. The article detailed significant increases in success rates between 1991 and 2021 both for IVF patients using fresh embryos and those using frozen ones. There was, however, no data about success rates using frozen eggs, as opposed to frozen embryos.

“Egg freezing gives Oxford woman ‘sense of control’” ran a headline on the BBC news website last week, above a story about a 37-year-old Asian woman who said she wanted to “remove the shame” surrounding the procedure in her community.

The story once again referred to the “fastest-growing fertility treatments in the UK”, and included quotes from a director at a local fertility clinic and information about costs, but again there was nothing about success rates.

While fertility clinics seeking customers are quick to trumpet their “thaw survival rates”, the key determinant of whether a woman will actually manage to have a baby using her own thawed eggs is the age at which she froze them. Women in their late 30s may gain a “sense of control” by taking this step, but £8000-plus is a high price to pay for a feeling that may not correspond with a high chance of success.

Naturally the fertility industry is keen to promote egg-freezing to much younger women, who have a much greater chance of using the frozen eggs to have a baby and, in the process, raising overall success rates for the procedure at both clinic and national level. Of course, women choosing egg-freezing for “social reasons” – ie, those with no known medical issues affecting their fertility – will also have much better chances of getting pregnant naturally and not needing the frozen eggs.

From a commercial standpoint, and indeed a liberal feminist one, there’s nothing to worry about here.

It appears that women have more reproductive choices than ever before, more “control” – as long as they have enough money or another route to accessing medical care.

But isn’t a lack of financial security – and in particular affordable housing – one of the very reasons why women are starting families at an older age, when pregnancy is riskier for both mother and baby? And isn’t a lack of choice of suitable partners another? Many of those who aren’t already splitting bills with a partner (suitable or otherwise) are struggling just to survive, let alone to thrive, flirt, fall in love and put down roots.

Even if a young woman manages to find a well-paying job and a suitable partner with whom to have a child, increasingly she might find herself feeling another kind of pressure to postpone parenthood – from her employer. “‘Fertility perks’ in the workplace aren’t a feminist victory” declared Glamour magazine in December as it reported on companies such as Meta, Apple and Goldman Sachs offering egg-freezing to its employees.

It cited a grim Evening Standard survey of Londoners that found seven in 10 women would consider freezing their eggs “to help with money worries and to free up more time to focus on their jobs”, and rightly warned these perks encouraged young women to “commit their most fertile (and productive) years to their employer”.

All these new “choices”, all these promises of “control”, quickly start to look like a trap. There’s plenty of money to be made in future from a generation of young adults who are currently unable to move forward with their life plans.

The question is, are there also votes to be won by offering them security, stability, and a realistic prospect of having families of their own, at the time they choose?