Welcomed as liberation and dismissed as exploitation, egg freezing
(oocyte cryopreservation) has rapidly become one of the most
widely-discussed and influential new reproductive technologies of this
century. In Freezing Fertility, Lucy van de Wiel takes us inside the
world of fertility preservation--with its egg freezing parties,
contested age limits, proactive anticipations and equity
investments--and shows how the popularization of egg freezing has
profound consequences for the way in which female fertility and
reproductive aging are understood, commercialized and politicized.
Beyond an individual reproductive choice for people who may want to have
children later in life, Freezing Fertility explores how the rise of
egg freezing also reveals broader cultural, political and economic
negotiations about reproductive politics, gender inequities, age
normativities and the financialization of healthcare. Van de Wiel
investigates these issues by analyzing a wide range of sources--varying
from sparkly online platforms to heart-breaking court cases and intimate
autobiographical accounts--that are emblematic of each stage of the egg
freezing procedure. By following the egg's journey, Freezing Fertility
examines how contemporary egg freezing practices both reflect broader
social, regulatory and economic power asymmetries and repoliticize
fertility and aging in ways that affect the public at large. In doing
so, the book explores how the possibility of egg freezing shifts our
relation to the beginning and end of life.
