Have we discussed this yet? Re: egg freezing

billybumbler

Facebook and Apple Now Pay for Women to Freeze Eggs

Two Silicon Valley giants now offer women a game-changing perk: Apple and Facebook will pay for employees to freeze their eggs.

Facebook recently began covering egg freezing, and Apple will start in January, spokespeople for the companies told NBC News. The firms appear to be the first major employers to offer this coverage for non-medical reasons.

“Having a high-powered career and children is still a very hard thing to do,” said Brigitte Adams, an egg-freezing advocate and founder of the patient forum Eggsurance.com. By offering this benefit, companies are investing in women, she said, and supporting them in carving out the lives they want.

When successful, egg freezing allows women to put their fertility on ice, so to speak, until they’re ready to become parents. But the procedure comes at a steep price: Costs typically add up to at least $10,000 for every round, plus $500 or more annually for storage.

With notoriously male-dominated Silicon Valley firms competing to attract top female talent, the coverage may give Apple and Facebook a leg up among the many women who devote key childbearing years to building careers. Covering egg freezing can be viewed as a type of “payback” for women’s commitment, said Philip Chenette, a fertility specialist in San Francisco.

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. Women at Facebook began taking advantage of the coverage this year.

More info here: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/perk-facebook-apple-now-pay-women-freeze-eggs-n225011

On the one hand, it's good that it's covered for those who want it/need it. On the other hand I wonder if it will create pressure for women to hold off on having kids, you know? I wish it were possible for women to have their kids whenever without it hurting their carrer.

Mags748

Now they can encourage their female employees to work like crazy and put off having families because they can just freeze their eggs for later.

Just kidding, somewhat.

Helenahhandbasket

I don't see this as anything but positive.

billybumbler

@fredalina What do you mean? This is not really for attracting talent?

[Deleted User]

I do agree that it's a sticky situation because it will cause some competition between women willing to wait vs. women who want to have the family and a successful career, but I also think it's pretty awesome to offer that benefit.

I know that I'm planning on freezing my eggs in the next year (and by eggs, I actually mean just the eggs, which I realize isn't as good as freezing embryos).  And  lot of my friends have actually already done it.  I guess IMO, I'd rather freeze my eggs at 33 and then have less pressure to go find my next husband.  It will take off the pressure to just enjoy my life, while being able to have kids later.  

ShakeyJakey

I feel like it's kind of like nursing rooms. Yes, they're nice to have if women want them. But they also make people say "why don't you just used the nursing room" to moms nursing in public. Why don't you just freeze your eggs!?! It's going to make a complicated decision look simpler to people who don't have to make it. "Why don't you just freeze your eggs?" instead of having a family when you and your partner decide to.

Team @Sterling13‌. There are many easier ways to make it easier on working moms or those who desire a family.

billybumbler

@‌fredalina Got it. I think they really mean eggs though because the article talks about advances in egg freezing techniques.

billybumbler

Also @Sterling13‌ said exactly what I was thinking but TB won't let me love tit for some reason

pdh2008

Inkogneetoh said:

I'd like to see their maternity leave policies and other benefits before I'm all 'What great companies to work for!'.

I'm a cynic though.

From what I can find online, FB provides 17 weeks of paid maternity/paternity leave for both parents.

At Apple, mothers can take up to 4 weeks before delivery and 14 weeks after and fathers can take up to 6 weeks. No mention of whether that time is paid, so I would assume not.

MrsT0514

I agree with @Sterling13‌ 100%. There are so many other ways to make life easier for working women and to attract female talent. This whole proposal of these employers giving women this option on their dime stinks of ulterior motives to me (prime example being to convince women to delay starting families and keep productivity up instead, which is bullshit).

ShakeyJakey

Yes, infertility coverage would benefit many more women in more ways. @ClaryPax‌ made a great point.

vandelay

I would welcome this as long as women are still provided support when they do choose to start their families, regardless of when that is.  I like the paid maternity leave at FB, for example.  And of course I would like to see IF coverage (I'd be several tens of thousands of dollars richer if I'd had that). 

But I still would have been all over this when I was younger.  I didn't make a decision to delay starting a family because my employer discouraged it.  I just didn't meet MH until my mid-thirties.  That happens to a lot of women, especially women who have more limited time to get out and meet people because their careers are demanding.  And I was almost unable to get pregnant because of it.  The ability to freeze my eggs on the company's dime would have been huge to me when I was in my early thirties starting to freak out because I hadn't yet met the one.  Huge.  And I wouldn't have cared whether the company's motives were altruistic, as long as they didn't fuck with me after I actually got pregnant.

Regarding getting pregnant while older, there are some risks, like increased risks of GD and preeclampsia, but the vast majority of the risks are related to old eggs, so egg freezing would eliminate those.  Not saying it's as easy as getting pregnant while younger, but young eggs make a big difference.