Dutch women queuing to freeze egg-cells

Nearly all women who have their-egg cells frozen do not have a relationship, a survey carried out by the Amsterdam Medical Centre shows.

Only a few women delay having children because of their career.

As of April women are allowed to freeze egg-cells for social reasons. Since then, 97 women have done so at the Amsterdam hospital, and 92 of them do not have a partner. Their average age is 36.2 years.

“Most of them are highly educated women”, says AMC’s Fulco van der Veen. “Of course they do have a career, but, with hardly any exceptions, they take this step because there is no man in their lives now and are afraid they may not find one in time to have a child.”

Nearly all of them, he adds, come to the hospital after ending a long-term relationship.

The AMC says it is surprised by the sustained interest. “We thought there’d be an initial flood of applicants and interest would then drop but people keep calling.”