A new study of egg freezing in the UK suggests that most women are motivated by an anxiety to find the right partner.

A new study of egg freezing in the UK suggests that most women are motivated by an anxiety to find the right partner to raise their children.

The study, conducted by sociologist Kylie Baldwin from De Montfort University in Leicester, showed that out of the 31 heterosexual UK women surveyed not one had frozen their eggs for career reasons. Instead, the participants said they were waiting to find a spouse who would be committed to raising a family.

“Many of the women I interviewed wanted to become mothers soon or had felt the desire to have a child for several years prior to freezing their eggs”, Ms. Baldwin said. “However what had prevented them from becoming a mother was the lack of the right partner who they thought would be a good father”.

The women in the survey were aged between 32 and 44.

The number of women freezing their eggs in the UK has steadily increased over the past 15 years. In 2001, 29 women underwent the procedure – a figure that rose to 816 in 2014. The average age of women to freeze eggs is 38, which later than health professionals recommend.

Women freeze eggs for stable families, not successful careers
Xavier Symons
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Xavier Symons

Xavier Symons is a bioethicist and scholar in residence at the Kennedy Institute for Ethics at Georgetown University.

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