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Is It Worth Your Time and Money to Freeze Your Eggs?

In 2014, tech companies like Apple and Facebook added egg freezing to their healthcare packages. The procedure has since received a lot of media attention, often being touted as a reliable option for career-oriented women to delay parenthood. What was once strictly a medical procedure for women facing life-threatening illnesses has now become elective and mainstream, regarded by its proponents as an "insurance policy." As a result, new market has emerged, with third-party "egg brokers" and fertility clinics selling the incredibly expensive service to women using questionable marketing strategies and misleading statistics.

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There's an emerging narrative that implies that parenthood and success are incompatible—but is that really true? Why are women so eager to freeze their eggs? In an effort to make sense of the convoluted and sometimes contradictory messaging around the procedure, Broadly meets with experts in the field, egg brokers, and patients whose road to parenthood may depend on birthing a child from their frozen eggs.