Apple and Facebook are now paying for women employees to freeze their eggs
Attempt to delay childbirth and recruit a more diverse workforce is both
encouraging and dystopian
* By _Carl Franzen_ (http://www.theverge.com/users/carlfranzen)
* on October 14, 2014 03:02 pm
* _Email_ (mailto:[email protected])
* _@carlfranzen_
(https://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=carlfranzen)
It sounds like a plot out of a Gattaca-like dystopian movie: giant
corporations that pay for the women on their workforces to freeze their
reproductive eggs, allowing them to spend more of their most fertile years at
the
office, delaying having children until later. Yet that's exactly what two of
Silicon Valley's largest companies are doing in real life in an apparent bid
to recruit more women talent, a laudable goal. Facebook and Apple will both
cover the costs of egg-freezing procedures up to $20,000 for individual
employees, according to _NBC News_
(http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/perk-facebook-apple-now-pay-women-freeze-eggs-n225011)
. Facebook's employees
were able to participate in the policy as of this year, while Apple's policy
won't be available until early 2015, according to the report.
The cost of egg freezing is up to $10,000 per cycle
Egg freezing (technically called "oocyte cryopreservation") as an elective
process is still a _relatively new trend_
(https://www.globaldonoreggbank.com/history-egg-freezing/) , first _pioneered
in humans in 1986_
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2870356) . It is designed to allow a woman
to
attempt to have children past her most fertile years (20-35, according to
_Mayo
Clinic_
(http://ivfspecialists.com/fertility-news/when-does-fertility-start-to-decline/)
). The process generally involves having a woman in her peak
fertile years take hormones to produce more mature eggs than the one that
would result naturally during her menstrual cycle, up to 45 eggs, according
to the _NYU Fertility Center_
(http://www.nyufertilitycenter.org/egg_freezing/cryopreservation_process) . The
mature eggs are then extracted or
harvested in a procedure that takes 10 to 15 minutes under sedation, and the
healthy eggs are then frozen in a fertility clinic and kept until a woman
wants
to have a child, up to _10 years_
(http://uscfertility.org/fertility-preservation/egg-freezing-faqs/) , at which
point they are unfrozen and fertilized
with sperm, then re-implanted into a woman's uterus. The technology hasn't
been very reliable and was until recently considered _experimental_
(http://jezebel.com/5953743/new-ivf-methods-double-success-rates-freezing-eggs-no-lon
ger-considered-experimental) . It is also expensive, costing around
$10,000 per cycle or "round" of egg production, so the Facebook and Apple
contributions could be extremely helpful for younger adult women who want this
procedure.
Advocates of the technology have applauded Facebook's and Apple's support,
and the overall effort to attract more women employees in the predominantly
white male workforces of both companies is certainly commendable. But
there are several concerns worth raising: one is that egg freezing is still
not
a very reliable way of getting pregnant, and thus still isn't recommended
for "career women" by _The American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists_
(http://www.acog.org/-/media/Committee-Opinions/Committee-on-Gynecologic-Practice/co584.pdf?dmc=1&ts=20141014T1358333982)
. Another is that it
puts the onus on women to decide when to have kids, yet men's sperm quality
_also declines with age_
(http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929275.500-mens-sperm-quality-decreases-at-age-35.html)
and sperm storage is far
_cheaper_ (http://www.spermbankcalifornia.com/sperm-bank-cost.html) . It also
would seem to encourage delaying childbirth and reinforce a workplace culture
that isn't supportive of childrearing earlier in people's careers.
_Facebook_ (https://www.facebook.com/careers/locations/seattle) and _Apple_
(https://www.apple.com/jobs/us/benefits.html) , both of which already offer
some
childcare support, may find that their money is better spent investing in
more flexible work/life options for their employees at all stages of life.
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[RC] Apple now playing God
BILROJ via Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community Wed, 15 Oct 2014 09:56:54 -0700
