The Egg Freezing Revolution? Gender, Technology, and Fertility Preservation in the Twenty‐First Century
Title
The Egg Freezing Revolution? Gender, Technology, and Fertility Preservation in the Twenty‐First Century
Author
Inhorn, Marcia C.
Research Area
Class, Status and Power
Topic
Gender and Gender Inequality
Abstract
Egg freezing is the “newest” new reproductive technology, a form of flash‐freezing that allows human eggs to be successfully stored in egg banks. Touted as a “revolution in the way women age,” egg freezing is being heralded as a way for older career women to “rewind the biological clock.” This essay will examine the many factors in American women's lives—education, career, financial stability, relationship status, medical diagnosis and prognosis—that affect their egg freezing and disposition decisions. “Medical” egg freezing is being used by cancer patients, while “social” or “elective” egg freezing is being used by professional women in their late 30s and early 40s, both of whom face the threat of future infertility. Egg freezing among professional women represents a technological concession to ongoing gender inequalities in American society. These include employment constraints facing career women, the growing demographic surplus of college‐educated women who cannot find college‐educated male partners, and women's resultant delays in marriage and childbearing. Ultimately, egg freezing reveals a new and important interface of science and society—one with major implications for human reproduction, women's lives, and family formation in the twenty‐first century.