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Frozen in time: Why women don’t have to race the clock

I’d heard of Tupperware parties and Botox parties — but I’d never heard of egg-freezing socials until I had the chance to attend one recently at Beverly Hills hotspot Via Alloro.
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July 23, 2015

I’d heard of Tupperware parties and Botox parties — but I’d never heard of egg-freezing socials until I had the chance to attend one recently at Beverly Hills hotspot Via Alloro.

Hosted by the Southern California Reproductive Center (SCRC), a Los Angeles-based fertility center, it was a swanky soiree with a three-course dinner and bottomless wine. So I wined and dined at a long table with crisp white linen, socialized with about 25 women and learned more about the human anatomy than I had in any high school biology class.

The first successful pregnancy resulting from frozen eggs dates back to 1986. The process, which has seen extensive advances since then, allows a woman to preserve her eggs in the hope of using them to achieve a future pregnancy.

Although I was a newbie, some of the women had attended as many as three previous egg-freezing socials. I don’t blame them — these things are fun.

“My friends just aren’t informed on egg freezing,” one of the attendees said to herself while scrolling through her phone (though loud enough for women nearby to hear). At age 42, this was her second social. 

Bethany King, director of marketing at SCRC, said the socials target a specific demographic of women who are looking into freezing their eggs as insurance for the future. Mostly, that means working women in their late-30s and mid-40s who want the option to delay having children.

Of course, egg freezing is a viable choice for other women, too. It allows those diagnosed with cancer or autoimmune diseases who will be undergoing harsh treatments -that affect fertility — such as steroids and radiation — to preserve their eggs.

“I grew up in a large family, so family means a lot to me,” Brooke Moore, a 40-year-old blonde with hot-pink lipstick and heart-framed sunglasses, told the Journal, 

“I also think I can be a kick-ass mom,” she added, sipping on a glass of white wine, leaving the faintest stain of hot pink on the rim of her glass. 

Moore, a New Jersey native who grew up in a Catholic family with three sisters and one brother, now lives in Hollywood and works in the entertainment industry. “I just haven’t met my partner yet,” she said. Taking matters into her own hands, she decided her next step would be freezing her eggs.

As the first course, a tricolore salad, was being served, informational PowerPoint slides were projected onto a screen.

“These are your ovaries at age 25,” said fertility specialist and SCRC co-founder Dr. Hal Danzer, showing a split-screen comparison of ovaries at birth (when eggs are copious and resplendent), ovaries at age 25 (by which time the egg count has dropped significantly) and, finally, ovaries at 40 (you can only imagine). I felt my 26-year-old ovaries cower as I swallowed a mouthful of mixed lettuce.

Dr. Mark Surrey, a co-founder of SCRC and member of Ohr HaTorah, said that, physiologically, “We as human beings are built to have children in our early 20s, but that’s just not the case anymore.” 

And although our bodies haven’t evolved to conform to social trends, science has done a pretty good job at keeping up. About three years ago, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine lifted the “experimental” label from the procedure because of advancements in the field via a flash-freezing process called vitrification. SCRC said it receives about 200 patients per year. 

Typically, egg freezing starts at a base cost of $9,000 and can climb to more than $15,000 for injections, medications and the number of collected egg samples. It’s not usually covered by insurance, but some companies, such as Apple and Facebook, will pay for elective egg freezing for their female employees as they try to balance work and family.

Surrey said egg-freezing socials are a good way to educate people in “a relaxed and calming environment,” a hum of chatter behind him as he spoke.

“Everyone knows somebody who’s had their eggs frozen,” said Dr. Shahin Ghadir, a partner at SCRC who goes to Stephen Wise Temple for holidays. 

SCRC’s first egg-freezing social took place in January of this year at Pan Asian restaurant Rock Sugar at Westfield Century City, and it’s starting to become a trend. As someone from an Iranian-American household, Ghadir said the socials are helping to open up discussions on a topic that was once taboo within the Middle Eastern Jewish community. In the future, he sees the egg-freezing process becoming the norm for women after they reach a certain age.

Amid the bustle of waiters clearing dessert courses (a chocolate mousse concoction), replenishing drinks and serving coffee, a ceramic plate crashed and broke. The room fell silent and in that moment, one of the women called out, “Mazel tov!”

Not a bad way to end an egg-freezing social.

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