Successful women are freezing their eggs. And that’s on men

<p>If all the women of the world had a collective wallet where we could put in a penny for every time we heard the words “your biological clock is ticking,” we could move to Venus and run our own planet.</p><p><br /></p><p>But as unfair as it may be, it is true. There <em>is</em> an ideal time period in a woman’s life when she can have a baby. Or when she is the most “fertile.”</p><p>Unlike men who are biologically not limited by such constraints, women are born with a limited number of eggs. And turns out, this number of eggs sees a drastic decline after the age of 37. And when we say drastic, we mean drastic.</p><p><br />But in the 1980s, scientists figured out how to freeze women's eggs. They developed a process called oocyte cryopreservation. It took thirty years for the procedure to become widely available. Today, a growing number of women are opting for the procedure. </p><p><br />Most people assume that women freeze their eggs so they can buy time to achieve professional success. Women who freeze their eggs are often envisioned as 'career-driven', 'power hungry', and ambitious. But, egg freezing is an intense process. It is invasive, it is painful. It takes a toll on women not just physically but mentally as well. Plus, it is expensive.</p><p>So why do women freeze their eggs?</p><p>Hosts Snigdha and Rahel went to <strong><em>Dr Marcia Inhorn, a professor at the University of Yale and author of Motherhood on Ice</em></strong> to find out.</p><p>Tune in.</p><p><strong><em>Daybreak is now on WhatsApp at +918971108379. Text us and tell us what you thought of the episode!</em></strong></p><p>Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. <a href="https://the-ken.com/pricing/"><strong><em>Subscribe</em></strong></a><strong><em> for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.</em></strong></p>