Facebook started covering it recently, and come January, Apple will include egg freezing and storage in its medical coverage for employees.
Of course you could see this as a way to ‘encourage’ women to postpone having babies so companies don’t have to lose female employees during maternity leave, or you could also see it as positive step forward in supporting women who choose to procreate in later life, when they feel like they can devote more time to kids and family.
The process of egg extraction and storage is quite costly, and the average American woman spends at least $10k on a single extraction alone (you get around 10 eggs), plus $500 a year to keep those eggs frozen until they decide to use them. Usually a women goes for around two rounds of extraction, in order to get more eggs. If and when she decides to use them, she goes through IVF.
While the process certainly does benefit companies who get to hold on to female employees a little longer (as their biological clocks aren’t ticking as loudly as they were before egg-freezing was an option), it actually benefits women who get a bit more time to decide if they even want children. That ‘Oh god, what if it gets too late in life and pregnancy isn’t an option?’ pressure is taken away, and women can add years to the traditional ‘child-bearing choice’ window.
In addition, a lot of women can’t even consider egg freezing due to the cost, so this not only takes the body-clock pressure off, it also takes off the financial pressure which is a big decision in itself.
There is nothing to suggest that either of these companies are discouraging women from having children while working there. Oh, and Facebook gives all new parents $4,000 in 'baby money' for their first kid. You can't argue with that.
So, you could be cynical and assume companies are evil blood-suckers who hate releasing women to maternity leave, or you could accept that egg freezing is an increasingly common choice being made by women, and as a medical procedure it should be covered by insurance, like everything else.
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.