Freezing for love: enacting ‘responsible’ reproductive citizenship through egg freezing

Abstract

The promise of egg freezing for women’s fertility preservation entered feminist debate in connection with medical and commercial control over, and emancipation from, biological reproduction restrictions. In this paper we explore how women negotiate and make sense of the decision to freeze their eggs. Our analysis draws on semi-structured interviews with 16 women from the Midwest and East Coast regions of the USA who froze their eggs. Rather than freezing to balance career choices and ‘have it all’, the women in this cohort were largely ‘freezing for love’ and in the hope of having their ‘own healthy baby’. This finding extends existing feminist scholarship and challenges bioethical concerns about egg freezing by drawing on the voices of women who freeze their eggs. By viewing egg freezing as neither exclusively liberation nor oppression or financial exploitation, this study casts egg freezing as an enactment of ‘responsible’ reproductive citizenship that ‘anticipates coupledom’ and reinforces the genetic relatedness of offspring.

Résumé

L’espoir suscité par la congélation des ovocytes afin de préserver la fertilité des femmes s’est intégré au débat féministe autour du contrôle médical et commercial sur les restrictions biologiques de la reproduction et sur l’émancipation de ces restrictions. Dans cet article, nous examinons comment les femmes arrivent à la décision de congeler leurs ovocytes et donnent du sens à cette décision. Notre analyse est fondée sur des entretiens semi-structurés conduits avec seize femmes vivant dans le Midwest et sur la Côte Est des États-Unis qui avaient fait congeler leurs ovocytes. Plutôt que de s’appuyer sur cette pratique pour trouver un équilibre entre leur carrière et « tout avoir », ces femmes, dans leur grande majorité, congelaient leurs ovocytes « pour l’amour » et dans l’espoir d’avoir leur « propre bébé sain ». Cette révélation dépasse les théories féministes existantes et remet en question les interrogations d’ordre bioéthique en prenant en compte la voix des femmes concernées. En ne portant pas un regard sur la congélation des ovocytes en tant que libération, oppression ou exploitation financière exclusives, cette étude caractérise la congélation des ovocytes comme la reconnaissance d’une citoyenneté reproductive « responsable » qui « anticipe la vie en couple » et renforce les liens génétiques avec les descendants.

Resumen

La promesa de congelar los óvulos de las mujeres que quieren conservar su fertilidad ha entrado en un debate feminista con relación al control médico y comercial y la emancipación de las restricciones de la reproducción biológica. En este artículo, analizamos de qué modo las mujeres negocian y dan sentido a la decisión de congelar sus óvulos. Nuestro análisis se basa en entrevistas semiestructuradas con dieciséis mujeres que habían congelado sus óvulos de las regiones del Medio Oeste y la Costa Este de los Estados Unidos. En lugar de congelarlos para conciliar su vida profesional y “tenerlo todo”, más bien las mujeres de esta cohorte los congelaron sobre todo “por amor” y con la esperanza de tener un “hijo propio y sano”. Estos resultados amplían los estudios feministas actuales y cuestionan las preocupaciones bioéticas sobre la congelación de óvulos al escuchar las voces de las mujeres que congelan sus óvulos. Al considerar que la congelación de óvulos no es exclusivamente ni una liberación ni una opresión o explotación financiera, en este estudio proyectamos que la congelación de óvulos es una representación de una ciudadanía “responsable” con la reproducción que “anticipa la relación de pareja” y refuerza la relación genética de la descendencia.

Keywords:

• Love
• reproductive health
• responsibility
• single women
• USA

Notes

1. Egg freezing technology originated to assist women undergoing treatment for cancer to preserve their eggs for future use. Our research deliberately focuses on a healthy cohort of women seeking to preserve fertility.

2. We choose to adopt the common parlance (‘freeze’/‘freezing’) used in media and fertility clinic advertising. However, the term ‘vitrification’ acknowledges the technological and scientific developments that have led to greater success rates with the thawing of eggs (see Merrit, Phillips, and Zoll 2014).

3. This is a stand-alone project nested within the larger transnational project titled ‘Reproductive Medicine and Mobility’ (Chief Investigator: Charlotte Kroløkke), which examines new reproductive technologies and how they enable the movement of tissues, donors, recipients and families across geopolitical locales.

4. Clinical marketing material from the London Women’s Clinic frames egg freezing as an opportunity to ‘take control of your fertility’(http://www.londonwomensclinic.com. Accessed December 2015). Meanwhile the notion of vitrification as the ultimate gender equaliser is present in media responses to the news that Facebook and Apple offer their female employees the ability to freeze their eggs. See: http://time.com/3509930/company-paid-egg-freezing-will-be-the-great-equalizer/. Accessed February 2015.

5. In the US-context, insurance coverage for egg freezing for non-medical reasons is patchy (Andrews 2014), with the degree of coverage (if at all) being dependent on individual insurance company policies. In October 2014, Facebook and Apple reportedly offered their employees up to US$20,000 toward egg freezing as an employee benefit, a trend that is likely to be followed by others in the high-tech sector and larger companies (Andrews 2014; Mertes 2015). Other private finance arrangements include discounted egg freezing packages and loans (Rosenblum 2014). Parents and grandparents have also reportedly provided money for egg freezing (Waldby 2015), and it has even been suggested that romantic partners who are yet to commit assist in financing egg freezing (Bhatia 2014).

6. See Ahmed (2004, 44–49) for a discussion of affective economies.

7. Some key health authorities such as the US National Perinatal Association are calling for a more critical examination of the safety of egg freezing for women and for the infant born from these technologies (Merrit, Phillips, and Zoll 2014).

8. Institutional Review Board clearance was granted by both medical centres: IRB#: 15-00081 (Midwestern Centre) and i14-01443 (East Coast Centre). The authors also have established professional research affiliations with each site.