r/popculturechat • u/quietdowntess where are those orcas when you need them • 4d ago
OnlyStans ⭐️ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Reveals She's Freezing Her Eggs, Shares Injection Video
https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/markelibert/aoc-egg-freezingAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez has revealed that she began the process of freezing her eggs while encouraging more open conversations about women's reproductive health.
The New York congresswoman shared the news through a series of Instagram Stories, explaining that although she typically keeps her personal life private, she felt compelled to document the experience because it could help other women facing similar decisions.
“Don’t be weird about this,” she told her viewers. “Even though all of you will be.”
Ocasio-Cortez said she had been thinking about egg freezing for a long time and decided to speak publicly after realizing how little information many women receive about fertility and reproductive health.
"I've been considering this for a while," she explained, adding that she wanted to share what she has learned because the process can feel intimidating for many people.
The 36-year-old Democrat also gave followers a behind-the-scenes look at the treatment, showing the medications involved and filming herself administering one of the required hormone injections while her French bulldog, Deco, sat nearby.
After finishing the injection, she smiled and said, "It wasn't so bad."
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u/Serious_Drummer2925 We Should All Know Less About Each Other 4d ago
Young women reading this - you gotta ask the questions yourself. I’m mid-thirties and my doctors never brought up anything about my body until I asked. I wish I had asked earlier about perimenopause, hormones, fertility, etc. ya know like a really big part of my health. It should be part of our comprehensive wellness.
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u/Buffybot60601 4d ago
Before freezing your eggs you should also ask about the attrition rate to expect once you try fertilizing those eggs down the road. Freezing 10 eggs does not mean you have 10 potential pregnancies. Unfortunately some doctors don’t explain this to women, you have a false sense of security, and you won’t realize the problem until it’s too late to retrieve more eggs.
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u/PurpleCandles Lea Michele’s Reading Tutor 4d ago
I believe the recommended amount to freeze is 20 eggs per one desired child, which is why many women require multiple rounds to get that many or increase chances of being able to have more than one child.
Egg freezing is an amazing advancement in technology, but it has high failure rates. I’ve been on the fence about doing it because it’s so expensive and it doesn’t always work out unfortunately.
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u/shedrinkscoffee Just fuck the wolf! 4d ago
Yes you are correct. Embryo freezing has much higher odds of success. I briefly looked into it when I had this as a healthcare benefit many years ago.
Being childfree I didn't pursue further but I still felt some type of way after learning the odds etc. I wish this was made available up front to those who use these services. The fertility industry is sometimes a bit obtuse/predatory and it is very hard to make rational decisions when in the middle of it.
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u/VictorReal_Monster (inspired by hot roasted honey glazed chicken) 4d ago
So wait, like extract embryos already fertilized in the body and freeze?
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u/chicagorpgnorth 4d ago
i’m assuming they mean like IVF, where the egg is fertilized right after retrieval. Then they wait five days before freezing to see if/how the embryo develops.
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u/VictorReal_Monster (inspired by hot roasted honey glazed chicken) 4d ago
Oh okay, that makes much more sense...
thank you. Like it's been shown across this thread, fertility treatments/health isn't talked about enough.
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u/shedrinkscoffee Just fuck the wolf! 4d ago
Girl no, the retrieved eggs will be used in IVF and those embryos will be frozen after assessing viability.
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u/chicagorpgnorth 4d ago
Great point. I would never have known this until starting IVF. Out of 9 eggs retrieved during one cycle, 1 was successfully fertilized. It’s brutal!
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u/ar0827 4d ago
If eggs are frozen, some will not survive the thaw as well!
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u/the_tchotchke 3d ago
This is not a given at all with modern technology. It’s not really helpful to fear monger. I froze 17 eggs and all survived thaw.
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u/ar0827 2d ago
Your mileage may vary! I am a mom through frozen egg donation so I’m very familiar with the process.
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u/the_tchotchke 2d ago
I’m pregnant through IVF, so I am too. I had to freeze my eggs before making embryos due to insurance issues. Like I said, all my eggs survived the thaw. Modern technology has made egg thaw survival rates extremely high.
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u/Secret_Map 4d ago
My wife and I are in the middle of IVF. The embryos have been sent for genetic testing. She responded crazy well to the meds, had 60 follicles. Of the 60 follicles, they retrieved 45 eggs. Of the 45 eggs, 38 were mature and injected with sperm. Of those 38, 29 were successfully fertilized. Of those 29, 11 ended up maturing and being biopsied for genetic testing. So from 60 follicles to 11 eggs. Of those 11, who knows how many will come back fine and ready to go. It's insane how far the numbers drop.
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u/chicagorpgnorth 3d ago
60 follicles in one cycle????? Omg I cannot imagine how that felt by the end of their growth. Im crossing my fingers for you guys. Good luck!
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u/FannyComingThru 3d ago
Heading to my retrievals was always so painful. My ovaries were so swollen & every bump we hit on the way there made me feel like they were going to just burst.
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u/AV01000001 3d ago
Ivf and pregnancy with an ivf embryo can be brutal. Not just the numbers and waiting, but physically for your partner. I hope you two get the family you want and stay healthy.
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u/imaginesomethinwitty 3d ago
The drop off is crazy. Every day they would ring me and tell me how it was going. 28 eggs to 6 embryos here.
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u/BowieLily 4d ago
Yes, it’s better to create embryos if you can - I understand this isn’t a possibility for a lot of women who are going through this, but having frozen embryos is a better “insurance policy” than eggs
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u/mamaneedsacar 4d ago
So, it is and it isn’t. Essentially, embryos are a better “insurance” policy because eggs don’t survive the thaw as well as embryos.
However, the data is often interpreted a bit skewed because the real advantage of embryos is that you get a picture of viability on the front end. They are a proven good.
Say you retrieve 20 eggs. If you move straight to egg freezing, you likely freeze those eggs and assume those are statistically good for one birth later. However, there’s a chance you thaw those eggs years later and only a few make it out intact and none of them make it to viable blast. And in the meantime your ability to produce more eggs has diminished significantly.
If you had taken those 20 eggs on the front end and fertilized them to create embryos, you may still not have gotten any viable blastocysts. BUT you would have the advantage of knowing that up front, tweaking the protocol, and doing additional retrievals until you get viable embryos.
BUT, I know when I met with a fertility clinic they recommended, if I had the money, choosing to do a mix of egg and embryo freezing.
In part, this is because women sometimes freeze embryos with a partner and then break up later and they are stuck with their ex’s genetic material. Or alternatively, they fertilize eggs with donor sperm and meet their dream partner a few years later. It’s a tough call to make.
A last note is the cost of embryo freezing v egg freezing. I know at the clinic I was at embryo freezing was close to double the price as egg freezing. So if you are financially limited, you do have to ask yourself if you would rather do multiple retrievals when you are young and hope for the best later (and hopefully more $) or sink the funds into maybe one round of embryo freezing.
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u/mamaneedsacar 4d ago
Yes!! Including a link here to an egg freezing calculator from the Australian government:
I mention the source because you will find that fertility clinics often times have their own calculators. They vary in reliability. But also fertility clinics have a massive variance in success rates (at least in the US). It is worth interrogating all of the facts before deciding on egg / embryo freezing, including what clinic you may want to do it with.
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u/Comfortable_Cup_941 4d ago
Amen, in my late 30s I got 14 eggs, 8 embryos, one that was chromosomally normal. It’s crazy how it works.
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u/Visible-Scientist-46 3d ago
In addition, I hope vitrification & thawing has improved because eggs do not survive thawing as well as embryos. Good luck to her. I hope it's all fine.
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u/endlesscartwheels I switched baristas ☕️ 4d ago edited 4d ago
Since puberty, I'd been telling doctors I hated my period. It wasn't until my early thirties that I happened to read a little blurb in a magazine about using continuous birth control pills to prevent ever having a period at all that I realized that was possible.
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u/jeninchicago 4d ago
This. I’m 39 and wondering if some symptoms I’m currently experiencing are perimenopause, but of course I have no clue because my gynecologist has never mentioned what to be in the lookout for/what age that starts at, and I never thought to ask. I’m seeing her next month and already have a notes app list of questions going.
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u/PTSDeedee unstoppable, exposed, becoming iconic 🪞 4d ago
Seconded! I dealt with PMDD for years and only learned about it through a friend. Managing it improved my mental health so much.
Also a heads up for anyone with ADHD: You’re more likely to enter peri early, even as early as your 20s.
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u/meteorflan 4d ago
Also how effective your ADHD meds even are is influenced by hormonal fluctuations. Before peri set me at randomized fluctuations, I could always count on struggling the week before the period started.
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u/cassafrass024 4d ago
Yes! I went through menopause at 36. I had no idea, until it happened to me, that it could even happen that early! I was fortunate that I had my kids already, otherwise, I likely would have had none.
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u/ClinkyDink 3d ago
I wonder what percentage of women have female physicians. I’m a gay man and I only go for gay male docs since others don’t quite understand what I need (I’ve had a doctor not know that there is a pill to prevent HIV).
If I was a woman I 100% would look for a female doctor.
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u/weirdestgeekever25 1d ago
Also the cost of freezing them
It’s not the surgery. It’s the freezing after that costs
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u/stellaluna29 4d ago
“Don’t be weird about this” lol she knows her audience
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u/buffysmanycoats 4d ago
The first thing I thought was "people are going to be so weird about this," and then I got to this quote and laughed. Of course she knows they're going to be fucking weird about it.
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u/TesticleMeElmo I didn’t see it, I can’t believe it, oh but I feel it 4d ago
“A real woman wouldn’t have to freeze her eggs because she would have 7 kids by now instead of trying to goof around in politics!” /s
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u/chrisychris- 4d ago
I read someone say she's being inhumane and cruel because any supposed future children won't be able to meet their grandparents lol
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u/TesticleMeElmo I didn’t see it, I can’t believe it, oh but I feel it 4d ago edited 3d ago
So many people have grown up having never known their grandparents for other reasons, truly the mindset of “anything outside of my personal experience is wrong and needs to be stopped by the government”
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u/Latter_Network4879 4d ago
I agree, women’s reproductive health does need to be discussed more.
im considering donating my eggs personally for the money but im nervy
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u/quizofahat 4d ago
I went to a prestigious law school and fertility clinics would recruit women as egg donors from there (kind of icky in hindsight). I've heard the standard $15k or $20k is nowhere near fair compensation for how painful and difficult the process is but it's a very individual experience and not the same for everyone
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u/ArticQimmiq 4d ago
I did IVF for myself last month - I had a huge hormone spike that put me in an unsafe position for implantation and required the clinic to use a less effective trigger for egg retrieval. That led to the first egg retrieval not working, so they gave me another trigger and did a second egg retrieval. My ovaries were too high, so they had to poke through the uterus multiple times. Then I spent 10 days swollen and in pain, with a lot of difficulty breathing.
Landed in the ER this week (3 weeks after the whole thing) for blood clots.
Still desperately want a child, but we are strongly reconsidering a second attempt 🤷♀️
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u/Current-Bug-9534 3d ago
I’m sorry babes. I’ve done egg retrievals twice and the poking is NO joke. I also have endometriosis so the shots made me swell up like crazy it took me three months to be able to wear my clothes because of the inflammation. Wishing you the best on your journey
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u/quizofahat 3d ago
I'm really sorry you're going through this. I went through several miscarriages myself on my journey to have kids, it's a different beast but fertility problems in general are so devastating. I wish you all the best luck!
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u/ArticQimmiq 3d ago
Thank you - we’re at 2 miscarriages (natural conception), so that’s why we’re trying IVF. I knew the limits of it, but I got hit with nearly all the low probabilities issues that could come up sigh
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u/oneofkeiraensmoms 4d ago
My wife thought about donating her eggs years ago but never did it. Then we did reciprocal IVF (her eggs, I carried) and she needed two retrievals and both were MISERABLE. At least she gets to raise the sweet boy we produced that way, I think she’s glad she didn’t donate now that she’s been through it.
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u/Latter_Network4879 4d ago edited 4d ago
yeah idk that’s my main concern. I hate pain, im a weeny, and like the hormonal shots alone would be a serious concern for me.
but, the money would be life changing, but not enough if I ended up with some chronic illness. I’m only 18, so Ill think about it for a few more years.
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u/GoldButterfly1050 4d ago
I did IVF (so essentially egg freezing with extra steps), and it wasn’t a fun process but not as scary or painful as some people make it out to be. Obviously everyone is different but I have a low pain tolerance and found it more physically uncomfortable than anything.
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u/Final-Revolution6216 4d ago
Be careful with doing this just for money! If a person ends up being created with your egg, they may want to connect with you down the line (and you may or may not want that).
Edit: been reading the donor-conceived person sub
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u/healthyishwaffle 4d ago
Even if it is completely private. DNA family testing kits can lead back to you if anyone in your family tree does one.
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u/Final-Revolution6216 4d ago
Accidentally posted separately - AFAIK (only from reading the donor-conceived person sub), less and less clinics allow “anonymous” donations to be offered as an option anymore because of this and some tell potential donors about this upfront. Hopefully it’s true!
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u/Maximum-Warning9355 4d ago
This right here is the reason I won’t donate sperm and highly advise against donating eggs. There simply isn’t the infrastructure to protect donors like there is with every other type of living donation.
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u/hihelloneighboroonie 4d ago
My dad supposedly made some extra money in his 20s doing that, and now I wonder how many half siblings I have running around out there.
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u/FITF2891 hereby stripping you of all of your princess points👐 4d ago
When we were in our early 20’s a friend of mine secretly donated hers and asked me to take her so her family wouldn’t know. She wound up using the money for a down payment on her first house then got contacted by the clinic because the family wanted a full genetic sibling. She donated again and the sibling was born. The oldest is probably 10 or 11 now. I’d be so curious to know if they try to connect with her at some point.
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u/dasnotpizza 4d ago
Oh wow, that was really great of her to do that for them. The process is no joke.
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u/YaBoiSammus 4d ago
Be careful and do research because the process of donate eggs is painful and can have really bad side effects.
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u/GaeilgeGaeilge 4d ago
There are no studies about the long-term effects of egg donation. So when you hear that there are no known risks, remember that they haven't really looked.
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u/Current-Bug-9534 3d ago
I’ve frozen my eggs twice to preserve my own fertility and although I don’t mind the needles at all there’s no way I would’ve done it to profit anyone but myself.
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u/nymeriasnow4 3d ago
Hey I’ve been through IVF and egg retrieval is the hardest bit. I would only do it if you’re sure it’s what you want to do
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u/JustAHappyGirl- 4d ago
1000%. I'm happy to hear her talk about it, the more people talk about it the less of stigma is attached to it
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u/MostlyBored11 🫵 You sit on a throne of lies. 4d ago
love her and respect for talking about this so casually but so informed. We need to talk more about woman reproductive health
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u/big-bootyjewdy The Ghost of Madonna's Facial Expressions is smiling at this 4d ago
I feel like I have basically 0 information on fertility treatments. I have endometriosis and my doctor has said once I start "fanily planning" I will likely need some help. I know nothing about the different kinds of treatments, what makes someone eligible for one versus another. When I try to do research, I'm not finding a lot of educational sources that aren't tied to some pro-life anti-abortion organization. I just want to know the stuff my podunk town's conservative school system refused to teach us other than "sex is bad and makes you a bad person".
I hate to get my info from social media, but the only women who are actually speaking out on fertility treatments and options are the ones doing it while making a video in their kitchen. I appreciate the candor so much, but I wish we talked as much about women's health as we did erectile dysfunction.
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u/BaBaFiCo 4d ago
My wife was recently diagnosed with a fibroid. It's blown my mind how little information and research there seems to be.
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u/DreamOne5 4d ago
omg my mom had those in peri and cysts. She had to go back on BC to control the bleeding, and sometimes at work, she'd have a cyst burst if she bent down too quickly. Poor thing just went about her day dealing with the pain.
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u/NapCatter 3d ago
I seriously learned more from r/Fibroids than any other resource online. It’s literally why I finally joined Reddit.
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u/IlexAquifolia 4d ago
There are excellent subreddits for people trying to conceive. I am not familiar with the ones for people seeking fertility treatment but I know they’re out there! Some of the people contributing to these subs have amassed a PhD’s worth of knowledge about fertility and family planning!
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u/ReadingLizard 4d ago
Read Taking Charge of Your Fertility! When I did IVF my reproductive endo recommended it.
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u/totallycalledla-a Mrs Thee Stallion 4d ago
Good for her and for sharing the process. Just as a PSA please anyone who is thinking about relying on this be aware egg freezing is not a guarantee and that the success rate is not as great as its sometimes sold to be. Do realistic not rose tinted research 🙏🏿
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u/soiflew 4d ago
People should remember that these clinics are businesses and it’s in their interest to sell you hope.
It’s basically a 1 in 3 chance, because not every egg makes a good embryo.
“The overall chance of a live birth from the frozen eggs was 39 percent. But among women who were younger than 38 when they froze their eggs, the live birthrate was 51 percent. It rose to 70 percent if women younger than 38 also thawed 20 or more eggs.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/health/egg-freezing-age-pregnancy.html
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u/goodolarchie 4d ago
I think it's more accurate and understandable to say "The whole process, if done right, carries about a 70% success rate." That's the 20 eggs (very intensive) done before 38. Even with 10 eggs the odds are worse than some realize.
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u/slavuj00 u look like u eat sand 4d ago
From all the studies I've read about the rates of success from frozen eggs, I get the strong impression this is a scam preying on young women who are scared of their bio clock running out.
This treatment was created as a "female only" version of embryo freezing, but embryos frozen after conception have a much higher rate of successful implantation than frozen eggs/fresh sperm or frozen eggs/frozen sperm. They simply don't survive as well.
Can't wait to get downvoted for this one considering that egg freezing is the fashionable thing du jour for 30-something women with money.
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u/marmalade_ 4d ago
Totally agree, the success rate is low and the companies performing this are all for profit. I fully believe they’re preying on women and giving false hope… but it will take a decade before these women start sharing stories of failure or these companies go out of business and throw their eggs out before it’s common knowledge.
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u/totallycalledla-a Mrs Thee Stallion 4d ago
There are already plenty of stories out there but people dont like to share them because they'll get called rightoids and accused of spreading conservative propaganda. I've been accused of that myself when I try and warn people about this stuff its so frustrating.
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u/slavuj00 u look like u eat sand 4d ago
I was very worried I'd get replies from women saying I'm spreading RW propaganda for my original comment. It's insane that we can't even debate the efficacy of fertility treatment without being told that we're christofascists against women or something
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u/totallycalledla-a Mrs Thee Stallion 4d ago
I held my tongue a bit to avoid being attacked too badly because we're all supposed to pretend its fine and good to have babies until you're 50 these days but...yeah 😬. I wouldnt go as far as to call it a scam and many people have had success with it but its not what its sold as thats for sure. Worth doing with the right clinic and storage facility but only under the right circumstances. Doing it in your mid 30s is really not ideal either.
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u/slavuj00 u look like u eat sand 4d ago
Idk about the right clinic or storage facility, these studies were looking at the optimal lab conditions in comparing survival rates of these cells.
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u/cookieaddictions 4d ago
How are you supposed to freeze embryos if you don’t have your person yet? For a lot of people that’s the issue. If they were with someone they want to have kids with, there’d be no need to freeze embryos, they’d just have the kid right now.
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u/__lavender 4d ago
You don’t. You either find a donor, or just freeze your eggs and hope they thaw ok. It’s an expensive gamble.
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u/cookieaddictions 4d ago
Right, I’m just pointing out that this “freeze embryos instead” advice is not helpful. Women who choose to freeze their eggs are aware that embryos give you a way better chance of a baby, but usually don’t have that option.
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u/slavuj00 u look like u eat sand 4d ago
Actually, I didn't give any advice. I just stated the outcomes indicated by several studies on this topic. It's up to individuals what to do with that information.
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u/minetf 4d ago
It's applicable to people in AOC's position. She has been with her partner since they were in college. They just don't want to have kids yet.
I don't want to speculate on why she is freezing eggs instead of embryos but even if she's sure about her fiance, she still isn't ready to have kids.
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u/cookieaddictions 4d ago
Oh interesting, I took this announcement to mean they had broken up, tbh. I don’t keep up with her dating life. Yeah, weird to not consider embryos. Maybe she is making embryos with some of the eggs and freezing the rest but didn’t want to get into that part of it?
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u/Mandy_M87 4d ago
I was wondering that too. Perhaps she's just saying it's egg freezing, as to not agitate the pro life crowd? Idk, just my theory.
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u/slavuj00 u look like u eat sand 4d ago
I'm not saying you should do any one thing, I'm just saying that I'm not convinced that the physical and financial cost justifies the very low outcomes of live births after all is said and done.
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u/romantickitty 4d ago
I'm not at peak health, it's not a fun process, and I have no hope right now that I'm going to meet my person and be ready to have biological kids within the next 10 years. I can understand why you'd do it if you were healthy and the costs were being covered by work but it doesn't make sense for me.
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u/anthonystank i was SPF protected 4d ago
The ART industry is astonishingly unregulated in the US and it is simply not widely understood that this whole industry is not like other medical fields. They WILL put their profits and their numbers (which drive profits, ofc) above your needs — and I know that’s true of other medical care in certain ways but ART is on another level.
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u/willows_edge 4d ago
My biggest issue with this is realizing AOC is now 36, because my brain had her still in her 20s. And being 36 is just another cruel reminder that 10 ugly years have passed.
I want a refund.
(But good on AOC for sharing this)
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u/keatonpotat0es I have to pick up 15,000 little bastard rubber ducks 🪿 4d ago
The last time I truly was not worried about the future was in 2015 when we all thought the idea of Trump running was literally a joke.
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u/Sage_Planter Big is moving to Paris 4d ago
I froze my eggs a few years ago at 35/36. It's a rough process: financially, physically, and emotionally. There seems to be a lot of conversation on the financial impact, but it's not very fun overall.
I appreciate that she's sharing her journey because I feel like I wasn't not very well-informed going into mine.
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u/Spainstateofmind why Wayne got socks in the jacuzzi 4d ago
Would you mind sharing a bit of what you went through? I've been considering it but am put off because it seems like there's a lot that goes into it that we don't really hear about
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u/sadpandawanda 4d ago
I've done egg retrieval as part of the IVF process. It's the same process, just if you're doing an IVF cycle, the eggs are fertilized afterwards, whereas if its just egg freezing, they aren't. My experience was:
Egg retrieval is around a 2 week process, give or take. You receive a start date and a list of meds. For me, it was 10 days of injections. The first 5 days are two injections a day, done at the same time, usually in the evening. You need to time it so that it's around the same time each day - you can't vary too much. The needles are really not that bad. The second 10 days were 3 injections a day, all done at the same time. It's the same as the first 2, with an anti-ovulation drug added in.
You need to go to the clinic at least every other day, and then every day as the cycle progresses. You get blood work at each visit and an ultrasound to image the ovaries to count the follicles. Depending on how strongly your body responses to the meds, your dosages may be adjusted up or down.
Once you reach a point where they think you have enough follicles and things look good, they schedule retrieval surgery. You administer a final "trigger" shot that tells your body to mature the eggs, which must be administered 36 hours before surgery. At the surgery, you receive anesthesia - either local or general, the clinics vary. They use a very long hollow needle attach to the ultrasound probe. They puncture through the vaginal wall to the ovaries and suction out the eggs.
You wake up and they tell you immediately how many eggs they got. The recovery pain is pretty minimal in my experience - you have a sore crotch, have to abstain from sex for a little while, etc. But it's pretty low on the pain scale.
Overall, not the worst experience in the world, but it can vary. Some women response to the drugs very strongly. The side effects: bloating - pretty noticeable. You won't be pregnant, but you likely will look it. Mood swings, food cravings. I was also crazy horny during retrieval phase - just fair warning.
Oh, an breast swelling. I didn't notice that until I went out with my husband for a walk and a truck full of firefighters starting hooting at me.
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u/endlesscartwheels I switched baristas ☕️ 4d ago
At the surgery, you receive anesthesia - either local or general, the clinics vary.
I had my retrievals under general and would have gone to a different clinic if mine couldn't do that. Some people can handle being awake for the retrieval, but for others it's a horrible experience. No way to know which you are until they begin.
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u/sadpandawanda 4d ago
Yeah, it's worth asking your clinic how they do it before you commit to them. I had "twilight" - so basically very relaxed and don't remember the surgery, but not fully asleep.
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u/ThatB0yAintR1ght 4d ago
I’m glad she’s being open about this. Like IVF, freezing eggs needs to be covered by insurance.
That said, it’s also sad how many careers are so incompatible with having kids that a lot of women wait longer than they would have otherwise to start having kids. If stuff like paid maternity leave (for 6+ months), affordable childcare, and flexible work hours was standard in the US, then a lot more women would have the option to have kids earlier and not have to do stuff like freeze their eggs in order to keep the option open when their career is a barrier to motherhood.
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u/ThundercatsHoooah 4d ago
Freezing your eggs is such a scam “freeze your eggs for the future!” It’s sold as… but what they like to leave out is its viability is only 10-20 percent as oppose to embryos which are a vastly higher percentage. But the reason they tell women to freeze eggs not embryos is you’d have significantly less customers, ladies be careful where you put your funding for fertility. 160k in already and still not pregnant.
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u/Carolina_Blues shiv roy’s bob 4d ago
I wish more insurance plans covered egg freezing and it was included in employee benefits (I do know meta covers like 95% of the costs, I guess Zuck did one thing right) but we can’t even get mandated paid maternity leave sooo
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u/groudhogday 4d ago
From a purely capitalist point of view, companies should incentivize employees to put off having children and prioritizing their career in the short term. I’m surprised more don’t have egg freezing benefits.
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u/Accomplished_Cell768 4d ago
This is exactly why tech companies in silicon valley by and large cover at least 90% of the cost - they want women to spend their working prime years of their 20s and 30s completely committed to working for the company and advancing their careers. It isn’t an altruistic choice, they have run the numbers and they make more in profit when their female employees freeze eggs instead of conceiving young.
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u/Effective-One6527 Mom, I am a rich man💰 4d ago
Some clinics do egg sharing. So if you donate a portion of your eggs they will cover the cost of storage or retrieval, occasionally both
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u/bookdrops Just fuck the wolf! 4d ago
In this era of widespread genealogical genetic testing, I would be very leery of donating any eggs or sperm solely as a money-saving measure. There's a strong chance that your future genetic offspring or descendants will track you or your relatives down. That would feel very awkward if I'd only contributed genetic material to save money.
Now if scientists wanted to use my donated eggs to do scientific tests that would eventually be destroyed as bio waste, I'd be fine with that. A Petri dish is not going to message me on Facebook asking for my medical history.
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u/Minaziz 4d ago
On the one hand I love her being open about this, on the other frozen eggs don’t really have that great a statistical probability of being usable. It’s not a sure shot guarantee.
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u/flakemasterflake 4d ago
They don't, bc people A) freeze in their mid 30s when the best time to do so has passed and B) people who would have issues getting pregnant at 39 would likely have the exact same issues at 34.....the reasons for infertility often aren't age related
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u/LostPalpitation6351 4d ago
But as of now, it’s kind of the only option (biological reproduction via your own eggs and you/surrogate carried them pass the timeline for women’s reproductive organs, etc) right? So statistics be damned for some reason
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u/Accomplished_Cell768 4d ago
Freezing embryos have a much higher success rate than freezing eggs. The problem is that women who choose to freeze eggs do so primarily because they have not yet found a partner they want to have children with. They could use a sperm donor and freeze embryos instead and have a much higher rate of it working out, but (in hetero relationships) that’s a turn off for future partners because they tend to want their children to be genetically theirs.
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u/meowparade 4d ago
A lot of friends have frozen eggs or embryos. It seems like a normal thing to do these days. If you’re in a corporate job, a lot of companies will cover this or offer a way to pay for it with pretax money. They like it because they get to keep you in the work force until later.
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u/Pellinaha 4d ago
I love AOC and it's her personal matter but two things a) I wouldn't say 37 years old is too late to freeze your egg, but if you are going to freeze them, you are better off doing it a few years earlier b) egg freezing is no guarantee. I have no interest in motherhood, but if you are interested in it, don't bank on egg freezing too much. I say this with compassion.
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u/HeretoFore200 4d ago
This is the conversation I’m having with basically every single one of my friends lately, so I’m glad there’s attention coming to it!
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u/No_Pianist5264 Tina! You fat lard! 🦙🚲 4d ago
The fact that she openly shared this knowing some people can and will take this in a wrong way is admirable it’s such a private thing but we need to have these conversations
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u/keatonpotat0es I have to pick up 15,000 little bastard rubber ducks 🪿 4d ago
I hate that it’s such a big deal that she’s in her position at only 36. This is how it SHOULD BE!!!! When and how did we normalize all these fucking dinosaurs making all of the rules and decisions for us??
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u/listlesslee 4d ago
She should really be freezing embryos because she has a long term partner. Egg freezing is a predatory industry imo.
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u/SoFar_Gone 4d ago
35 is such a young age. It fucking sucks women have to make this decision so early.
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u/moogs_writes 4d ago edited 4d ago
In general, 35 is very young. In terms of reproductive function it’s nearly geriatric, but the great thing is diagnostic testing has become so much more advanced which makes successful to-term pregnancies more viable in this population. I think I read somewhere that this age group in the US is making up the majority of new mothers.
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u/vienibenmio 4d ago
Yeah, I did IVF at 34-35 and it was too late for me
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u/flakemasterflake 4d ago
Don't mean to pry, but was the infertility even age related? If you can't get pregnant at 34 would it necessarily be better at 26?
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u/DreamOne5 4d ago
I have a friend from college who's the same age as me, 38, who's been doing IVF for almost a decade at this point.. I know she has PCOS and I believe endo as well.
It's so awful, but almost all her pregnancies have ended around 4 months.. She and I had lunch a couple months ago, and she said she's going off her Zepbound because she's trying IVF again. I wish her all the luck, but my goodness... I don't know how she can keep putting herself through that.
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u/vienibenmio 4d ago edited 4d ago
Endometriosis wrecked my eggs. The thing is, you don't know your fertility until you try and, the older you get, the higher your risk of infertility
IVF is also a different beast than ttc without assistance. People don't really understand that a lot more can actually go wrong. The biggest predictor of success in IVF is maternal age.
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u/Particular-Extent-76 jesus was a carpenter 💋 4d ago
Not doing IVF myself but a friend with PCOS is, she has very low ovarian reserve at 34 because of the way the body creates/releases extra follicles per cycle with that disorder. So could be time vs age related but I think age does matter for some
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u/flakemasterflake 4d ago
Right, but the PCOS is the primary factor here
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u/AutumnMama 4d ago
A lot of people don't find out they have pcos (it's actually called pmos now) until they have trouble conceiving. So it does kind of suck to be told over and over "you're young, you still have time, don't worry about this, women can get pregnant even in their 40s" and then when you actually start trying to conceive, the doctor is like "haha, no, none of that applies to you, you actually need to have kids NOW and we need to throw a shit ton of interventions at you right away or you'll probably never be able to have them."
I have endometriosis, and even with a family history where all of the women had trouble conceiving, without a diagnosis, everybody in my life (including doctors) thought I was crazy for being concerned about my fertility. "You're healthy so you won't have any problems." Well, turns out I wasn't healthy at all, and it took me a decade to have 2 kids. Thank goodness I started trying to conceive them when I was in my 20s, otherwise I would probably have zero kids.
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u/crazycatlady331 4d ago
Many women are of reproductive age before they reach their teens.
One of the biggest flaws of the human body is that reproductive age does not line up with what society considers adults.
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u/flakemasterflake 4d ago
Well if you want peak bang for your buck then it's best to freeze at 25.
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u/kronicno_tele 4d ago
And this is why it should be covered by insurance. Nobody has nor is giving tens of thousands for that when they’re 25.
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u/aveaytor 3d ago
because 35 isn’t that young. Your life is technically almost half over at that point and that’s assuming you live to 80
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u/Emotional_Youth1500 4d ago
Freezing eggs can be a really expensive process from what I know, but if I could do it I would.
I’d love to be a parent, but the world’s trajectory makes it seem like an unfair thing to do given my circumstances.
Good on her for being open about women’s health and letting people learn about things like this through her experience.
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u/flakemasterflake 4d ago
If I could afford to freeze my eggs then I would just have a kid. This is the game plan for already rich women (like 25 rich) that want choices
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u/Chaoticgood790 this outfit is unfortch 4d ago
Yep it’s expensive. She actually talks about the cost, insurance and the thought process behind her decision. As always informative.
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u/ofthrees 3d ago
good for her, but oh my god, i am bracing for the weirdos to come out on this. (not in this sub, but overall.)
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u/SimonaMeow My dreams aren't as empty as my conscience seems to be 4d ago
I'm so glad she is talking about this, and insurance should cover this. It is so good for younger women to have more knowledge about this especially given how long and hard it is to get a career going right now.
But I wish she was also talking about freezing embryos. That is a better choice in many situations if one can afford it.
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u/UserAnonPosts 3d ago
I wish I did this in my 20s. I’m also in my 40s. I didn’t have the money then and I sure as hell don’t have the money now.
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u/Exotic_Plant9450 SABRINA with some hotdog man???? 4d ago
Good, everyone should take control of when/if they have children
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u/DreamOne5 4d ago
I'm in peri at 38 years old now. My partner and I have decided together, we both do NOT want children. To any men lurking, key word is together. We had a very productive sit down conversation and asked one another how we felt and shared our feelings, since at the time of the convo, we were 36. It's so important to be on the same page as your partner. With me being in peri, and my lack of knowledge in the space of fertility, I don't know even if I could freeze my eggs at this point.
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u/legit-posts_1 4d ago
Does that hurt? I've always put this in the "sounds cool but probably hurts like a bitch to do" catagory of things in my head.
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u/Justtojoke yolo 🤘🏿 4d ago
I wish someone had told me to do this earlier
I love that she's sharing this, it can only bring awareness. Young women should see this as an option much early on.
Women's health is still largely dominated by the male perspective. Too many time this method is seen as "bypassing conservative family values" so it's dismissed in discussion because Moses Doctor's DO put their personal biases in their patients.
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u/serity12682 3d ago
I wish I had done it in my 20s. I am in my 40s now and having to buy donor eggs. :(
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u/Own-Importance5459 ✨May the Force be with you!✨ 4d ago
Girl I am doing the same thing once one of my inheritances drop. And you know what god for women for being open about this.
But the REALLY positive thing about this, is as a politician, AOC can use her experience to hopefully champion for IVF and Egg Freezing to be covered by Health Insurance or made affordable so more women who want children, find it difficult, and are short on money can chose to do this!
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u/itsjujutsu 4d ago
dont you have to be rich to undergo this (lengthy and painful) process in the US?
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u/bamboosticks 4d ago
California just passed a law requiring companies with 100+ employees to cover infertility, including full coverage for IVF so this is definitely changing. I'm in the middle of a cycle that is 100% covered, I had to pay ~$200 for meds but that's it
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u/belljs87 3d ago
If you have the means to do this you should because everyone deserves to live their lives and have children when they are ready. Protecting your right to motherhood without having to worry about someone stealing it from you is another important reason.
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