When Megan Christenson turned 32, she knew it was time to make a major investment in both her career and personal life. She dug into her savings and spent nearly $10,000 to freeze her eggs, a choice that would benefit her present and future self.
“I feel very fortunate to have been able to sustain that cost, and I also saw it as a healthcare expense,” she says. “This is an investment in my future health. If someone was like, you need to have this surgery to make sure you can walk in 10 years, you would do it. I saw egg freezing as a necessary expense, too.”
Egg freezing — a process where women’s eggs are extracted and frozen, or then fertilized to create embryos — has seen a sharp
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“The average childbearing age has gone from mid-twenties to closer to late twenties, and in high-cost living areas, usually even much later than that,” says Christine Peter, a digital health coach specializing in fertility for
While egg freezing is not a guarantee that a woman will be able to utilize her eggs when she’s ready, it can serve as a security blanket, albeit an expensive one. Christenson is a small business owner and paid for the procedure out of pocket; the typical cost for egg freezing runs between $6,000-$20,000 to retrieve the eggs, with additional costs for medications and egg storage.
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While Christenson shouldered that financial burden on her own, many employers are boosting their fertility benefit offerings to cover some of the costs and provide more robust education. The investment could go a long way to attracting more female employees, a lesson more and more employers are taking seriously.
“I do see the benefit of providing either a stipend or contribution toward this service as a really compassionate strategy to retain female employees,” Christenson says. “When I think about employee retention and engagement and companies investing in their talent meaningfully, this is right up there for me.
Currently, just 19% of employers offer stipends for egg freezing, according to Mercer, while around 24% offer coverage for
“We're taught through high school and in college how not to have a family, how not to get pregnant. There's very little education on how to get pregnant, so people don't necessarily realize how time sensitive that is,” Peter says. “So egg freezing gives them the choice of putting that aside for a little while and leaning into their career for a little bit, and that's something that can be mutually beneficial.”
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At Ovia Health, users are provided with coaching services to guide them through their options, while also getting access to digital tools like an ovulation tracker. When women are ready to pursue fertility treatments like egg freezing, coaches guide users through their options, partnering with healthcare plans and working with employers on their reimbursement strategies.
“The technology behind vitrification of eggs has really come a long way and we are seeing better and better outcomes with egg freezing, but it is not a guarantee,” Peter says. “Think of egg freezing or fertility preservation as just one more option, and something that you may or may not even need. It just gives you an extra layer of security.”
Christenson did not work with Ovia, but says the experience with her clinic and her doctor helped her combat the stigma associated with egg freezing, and left her feeling confident about her choice to follow this route.
“I feel more calm about making certain choices in my personal life and my professional life because this is not as much of a factor in my decision making,” she says. “I think a lot of people think about the first pregnancy, but this has just given me more options as to when and for how long I could have kids.”
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While Christenson was not in a serious relationship when she froze her eggs, she has since met her partner and the two have talked about starting a family in the future. While no firm plans have been set, egg freezing has given her both peace of mind and a sense of control over what comes next.
“The fact that my eggs are frozen hasn't really come into the conversation around timing, which is interesting. But we both know that they're there,” she says. “We can be really proactive about our family planning because step one is already taken care of.”
