The New : Fertility Frontier

New programs allow women to freeze their eggs for free... As long as they donate half of them. WH goes behind the scenes of this hybrid approach, then talks to experts about how they see it expanding access and hope for women.

- Por Kristine Thomason

At 22, Arianna W. was certain she wanted to freeze her eggs one day. It was 2016, and she was interning at Boston IVF Fertility Clinic, witnessing the spectrum of ways people created families. As a queer woman with hopes of becoming a mother, she knew her journey to starting a family, biologically, would likely involve reproductive-tech interventions. The idea of donating some of her eggs to help another family with a parallel experience was always in the back of her mind. Arianna was also aware that, "ideally, I should freeze my eggs on the earlier side and not in my mid- or late 30s" because of the studied age-related decline in fertility. But the five-figure price tag put the option out of reach. "In my early 20s, I didn't have that money to spare," she says. "So even though I knew this was something I wanted to pursue, the process was too cost-prohibitive." Seven years later, during an Instagram scroll, a compelling ad popped up. The post promoted "accessible egg freezing," including an option to do so for free if she donated a portion of her eggs to another family. Intrigued by this "split" program, Arianna immediately clicked through to begin the process.

THE HYBRID MODEL, EXPLAINED

Sometimes referred to as freeze and share, this approach to fertility preservation gives donors the option to freeze a portion of their retrieved eggs in lieu of monetary compensation. So, while the donor isn't offered a cash incentive for their eggs, they don't have to pay thousands of dollars to freeze and store them, either. A handful of fertility clinics across the country, such as Oma Fertility and Freeze and Share, offer a version of this approach, with specifics varying among programs.