Motherhood on Ice

The Mating Gap and Why Women Freeze Their Eggs

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Pub Date 01 May 2023 | Archive Date 09 Oct 2023

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Description

Answers the question: Why are women freezing their eggs?

Why are women freezing their eggs in record numbers? Motherhood on Ice explores this question by drawing on the stories of more than 150 women who pursued fertility preservation technology. Moving between narratives of pain and empowerment, these nuanced personal stories reveal the complexity of women’s lives as they struggle to preserve and extend their fertility.

Contrary to popular belief, egg freezing is rarely about women postponing fertility for the sake of their careers. Rather, the most-educated women are increasingly forced to delay childbearing because they face a mating gap—a lack of eligible, educated, equal partners ready for marriage and parenthood. For these women, egg freezing is a reproductive backstop, a technological attempt to bridge the gap while waiting for the right partner. But it is not an easy choice for most. Their stories reveal the extent to which it is logistically complicated, physically taxing, financially demanding, emotionally draining, and uncertain in its effects.

In this powerful book, women share their reflections on their clinical encounters, as well as the immense hopes and investments they place in this high-tech fertility preservation strategy. Race, religion, and the role of men in the lives of single women pursuing this technology are also explored. A distinctly human portrait of an understudied and rapidly growing population, Motherhood on Ice examines what is at stake for women who take comfort in their frozen eggs while embarking on their quests for partnership, pregnancy, and parenting.

Answers the question: Why are women freezing their eggs?

Why are women freezing their eggs in record numbers? Motherhood on Ice explores this question by drawing on the stories of more than 150 women...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781479813049
PRICE $30.00 (USD)
PAGES 352

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Featured Reviews

Assisted Reproductive Technology is an elegant term for one of the most revolutionary medical advances affecting women’s lives. The aspect that Inhorn examines here is seldom addressed with such clarity and incisive intelligence.
The sociological factors that induce many women to freeze and preserve their eggs the better to safely postpone motherhood deserve wider public attention and understanding.
Chapters like “Educated Women and Missing Men”, “Minority Concerns: Race, Religion, Fertility,” and “Supporters: Family, Friends, and Men Who Care” address many of the key factors that surround this particular option for planned parenthood. This book makes the science behind ACT comprehensible, and encourages a sober assessment of the pros and cons.

With current legal debates raging in America over abortion rights, this other aspect of women controlling their own bodies and reproductive choices seems equally important. Compassion and practicality need not be mutually exclusive when assessing the viability of motherhood. Whenever aging, illness, economic duress or career pressures make child bearing impossible or Ill-advised, frozen eggs or embryos preserve the possibility of biological motherhood for those women and families who still desire it.

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