The great pandemic baby boom may be a bust but there is one group who are showing considerably more interest in having children. With normality still on hold, the number of women choosing to undergo fertility preservation treatments is rising. According to New York-based fertility clinic Kindbody, egg-freezing procedures have doubled this year.
Oocyte cryopreservation, or egg freezing, is one of the fastest growing treatments in fertility services. An entire start-up sector has evolved to encourage women to see it as a relatively low-stakes way to take control of their fertility. Kindbody is known for its pop-up clinics in distinctive yellow and white vans offering free fertility checks. Egg freezing, it says, is a way to “own your future”. Extend Fertility’s adverts compared the cost to buying a frozen berry acai bowl every day, making it look more like a cosy lifestyle option than a surgical procedure.
What the glossy adverts do not tend to mention is how likely the procedure is to work. One cycle can cost ￡8,000 in the UK and $15,000 in the US. Yet birth rates are less than one in five.