Solo women look abroad to get round ban on egg freezing

When Yang Li* turned 30, she gave herself three years to decide if she wanted children. But as the years ticked by, working a busy job in Beijing, Yang remained unsure. So last year, a month shy of her 34th birthday, she decided to freeze her eggs.

- Amy Hawkins

The problem was, as a single woman in China, no fertility clinic would help.

Despite China's push to boost the birthrate, only married couples with fertility problems can use any kind of assisted reproductive technologies.

"I talked to a doctor, and she told me that to freeze my eggs in China, I either need a husband or I need to have cancer. And I told her, I don't want either," Yang said.

After researching various options online, Yang travelled to the Czech Republic in September to undergo an egg retrieval and freezing process. The whole treatment cost her about 25,000 yuan ($3,400) plus an annual storage fee. She plans to go back for another round this year.

Yang is part of a growing generation of educated, urban women who are delaying marriage and motherhood - much to the chagrin of China's leaders. Last year China's birth rate fell to a record low of 6.39 per 1,000 people and the population shrank by almost 3 million.

Boosting China's birthrate has been linked to the goal of national rejuvenation and Xi Jinping, China's president, has called on society to "actively cultivate a new culture of marriage and childbearing".