Why More Women Are Thinking About Fertility Earlier
Conversations around fertility in your early 20s can be somewhat confusing. To start, it's no surprise that many women have explored egg freezing as a way to create more flexibility while building their careers. However, while research from UCLA found that more women than ever are choosing to freeze their eggs, fewer are actually returning to use them, sparking the question of whether it’s worth it, giving strength to the idea that fertility is something to think about "later." According to experts, however, waiting until you're ready to have children isn't always the best time to start the conversation.
Lauren Makler, Founder of Cofertility, the human-first fertility ecosystem focused on egg freezing and transparent egg donation matching, agreed that the notion of wanting to put off thinking about fertility is understandable. Still, while it might sound “easier to just cross that bridge when you get to it,” what she wishes someone had told her earlier is that “you will never be as fertile again as you are today. That's just biology, and ignoring it doesn't change it.”
One clear hold up for many women is the price tag. Historically, the procedure has been quite expensive given it involves injectable medications, multiple monitoring appointments, and an outpatient retrieval. Today, there are options, including Cofertility’s Split program that “makes egg freezing and ten years of storage completely free for women who donate half of their retrieved eggs to an intended parent who needs them to build their family.” Lauren said that the program was “designed for women who want to do something meaningful for their own future, while genuinely helping someone at the same time.”
Still, it’s a lot to think about when you’re already overwhelmed with your life currently. Lauren said that when thinking it through, “what matters is that you arrive at that answer with real information rather than panic or avoidance.” She encourages women in their 20s to do is to “start imagining her full family-building journey.” Many, she said, don’t imagine having kids until their mid-30s, but it’s important to remember that “each child is its own fertility journey.” And the math gets real pretty quickly. “Once you work backwards from the future you envision for yourself, you get so much more clarity on what decisions make sense for you right now.”
Additionally, Lauren said that egg freezing is “a thousand percent empowerment,” adding that “it's elective, it's proactive, and it's a woman deciding on her own terms that she wants options later in life. She knows it's not an insurance policy, but it is the closest thing.” In fact, it's actually why proactive options like egg freezing exist.
The place to start is getting informed. “That's a very different headspace than feeling like you're racing a clock,” Lauren told The Newsette. “For some women, once they map out their goals and timeline, egg freezing feels like an obvious ‘yes’. For others, maybe not, and that's completely valid too.”
