August 13, 2026
Source/USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is raising awareness about women's health by publicly sharing her experience with egg freezing. Pictured here, Ocasio-Cortez speaks at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has generated a lot of media attention and widened public discourse about fertility and women's health since she revealed she is undergoing the process of freezing her eggs.
The Congresswoman from New York – who seemingly came out of nowhere as a young, democratic socialist bartender in 2018 to win her seat in the House – started a livestream series of posts on social media Saturday night to talk about her decision and document her experience.
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In an interview on ABC News, Ocasio-Cortez, 36, confirmed Sunday that she was freezing her eggs (and also that she "hasn't ruled out the possibility" of running for president).
"In this political environment where this administration is denying reproductive care to women across the country, from abortion rights to the ability to carry out a healthy pregnancy, I think it's important for us as leaders to have these conversations and share these processes, especially for working women across the country, and normalize them," she said.
In the days since, Ocasio-Cortez has received an outpouring of support from her backers for her decision to share publicly her egg-freezing journey. She has been praised for boosting awareness about women's health and raising awareness about an issue that many women struggle with in private.
In response to a post that shows Ocasio-Cortez giving herself a hormone shot, a woman commented that she twice went through in vitro fertilization and "basically didn't talk to anyone about it." The woman said she found Ocasio-Cortez's livestream "so beautiful and relatable and weirdly deeply moving. Thank you. We shouldn't have to do these things alone."
"I have wanted to do this so bad but I can't afford it," wrote another commenter who identified herself as a social worker. "I would really love it if you can keep pouring into affordable healthcare for our country."
Another commenter added: "Women's healthcare and health concerns should not be hidden underground in a cave – god bless you and thank you for sharing."
No surprisingly, Ocasio-Cortez has received criticism for her decision and livestreams, too.
"She is privileged, she has options," an Instagram user wrote Thursday. "But the truth is, waiting to become a mother until your mid/late 30ies is always a risk. I think promoting early motherhood would make scientifically more sense."
"Shhhhh…you just keep embarrassing yourself more and more with each post," another commenter wrote. "Don't you have a job to do? Wonder who's paying for all this."
Ocasio-Cortez addressed the high price tag for egg freezing, saying she came from a working-class family and has had to save for the procedure. Egg freezing can cost as much as $10,000 to $15,000, not including annual egg storage fees that typically run about $1,000. Most insurance companies do not cover egg retrieval, with some exceptions, including when a person is undergoing cancer treatment that can affect fertility.
Women have about 1 million eggs at birth, with the number diminishing over time and with each menstrual cycle. At puberty, women typically have about 300,000 eggs left, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Egg freezing, known as oocyte cryopreservation, is most viable when women are in their 20s and 30s, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine says.
"Egg freezing is a powerful tool for fertility preservation," Dr. Iris Insogna, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at Columbia University Fertility Center in New York City, told WebMD last year. "It's a great option for many people, including single women, women who are planning to delay childbearing, trans men who are interested in fertility preservation, women with endometriosis, or women with a diagnosis of cancer prior to chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery."
The process involves self-administering hormone shots to stimulate the ovaries and spur the generation of multiple follicles, fluid-filled sacs that hold eggs as they mature. When a fertility specialist determines the follicles are ready – typically after eight to 12 days – a procedure called transvaginal ultrasound aspiration, involving a needle inserted into the follicles to retrieve the eggs, occurs. Then the eggs are frozen and stored for future use.
Exactly how long frozen eggs remain viable is unknown, because the procedure only has become widely used within the last decade, Johns Hopkins Medicine says. But scientists suspect they will behave similarly to embryos, which have achieved pregnancies two decades after being frozen.
Egg retrieval empowers people to take greater control of their fertility and family planning. But Insogna warned that "not every egg will survive the thaw, not every egg will fertilize, not every fertilized egg will develop to the blastocyst stage of embryo development, and not every blastocyst will result in a successful pregnancy. So it is important to accept that we do not know everything when we freeze eggs."
Determining the success rates of live births resulting from frozen eggs can be confusing, since there are so many variables, including the age of the woman at the time of egg freezing, number of eggs thawed and quality of frozen eggs.
According to Cedars-Sinai, for women under 35, each frozen egg has a 5% chance of resulting in a pregnancy. About one third of those pregnancies result in a live birth.
A 2023 study analyzed data from 164 women – with an average age of 37 – who had 187 egg-freezing cycles. Only 16% of those women returned to use their frozen eggs. Out of that 16%, the pregnancy rate was 48%, and 35% of pregnancies ended in live births.
Another study from 2022 found that 70% of women under 38 who froze their eggs – and thawed at least 20 at a later date – had a baby.
"Freezing eggs at a young age becomes an option to be one's own egg donor at an advanced age," the study's senior author, Dr. James Grifo, director of the NYU Langone Fertility Center, said when the study was published. "As younger patients freeze eggs and do more than one cycle, the success rates will be even higher than reported in this study."
