No, Companies Shouldn’t Pay Women to Freeze Their Eggs

While sperm has been successfully frozen for decades, it wasn’t until 1999, when flash-freezing procedures were introduced, that eggs could also be stored in cryobanks. By 2012, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine had announced that the freezing of a woman’s own eggs for possible use later in life—otherwise known as “social freezing”—would no longer be considered experimental.

The Society’s approval was meant to apply to infertile mothers who could not produce their own healthy ova—not career women deferring their childrearing years. This point was clarified by Eric Widra, a physician and co-chair of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine committee that made the recommendation, in a 2012 PBS interview: “We think it’s premature to recommend that women freeze their eggs to preserve their own fertility for later. But we recognize that there is a strong impetus to do so and if centers proceed with that service that we carefully counsel the patients as to the pros and cons. So we would love to say, yes, please go and do this. But it comes with both personal and societal and...