Would You Be More Likely to Freeze Your Eggs If It Were a Work Benefit?

As you may have seen on either Jezebel or NBC News this morning: Facebook and Apple have become the first two companies to offer to pay for their employees’ egg freezing procedures.

To quote NBC News:

The companies offer egg-freezing coverage under slightly different terms: Apple covers costs under its fertility benefit, and Facebook under its surrogacy benefit, both up to $20,000.

It appears at this point that Facebook and Apple only offer this benefit to female employees; they don’t, for example, offer married couples the chance to freeze the eggs of the spouse who does not work for the company. (I’m making this assumption because the news stories I’ve read have only mentioned offering the benefit to women. I’m also hoping “women” encompasses all people with ovaries, but again, they didn’t say.)

It’s an interesting move, first because it acknowledges that delayed childbearing is a true cultural shift, and second because it’s a subtle reminder that one of the reasons women delay childbearing is because they’re working to build their careers at groundbreaking, all-encompassing companies like Facebook and Apple.

Lean in, don’t leave before you leave, and put your eggs on ice.

Would you freeze your eggs if your workplace offered to pay for the costs? My initial instinct is that I would, but it’s also an invasive and uncomfortable procedure that lasts 4–6 weeks, so it’s not something I would do lightly, even if it were free.

But if my workplace offered it, I’d probably take them up on it.

And then, of course, I’d get back to work.

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