Sick Days. PTO. Egg-Freezing?

A few years back, I got sick. I have a condition called endometriosis, where uterine tissue grows in places it shouldn’t. And it can make it hard to have kids. So, in between surgeries bookending a few years of my life, I froze my eggs.

It cost me $7,000, insurance covered the drugs, which were $1,800. The rest, I paid out of my own pocket. Storage runs about $300 a year.

It was scary. Painful. Expensive. And I still don’t know if all that money and effort will ever be worth it, because the science is pretty new.

But, I do know that I bought myself maybe a little confidence to go forward in my career, and not worry late at night that I’m throwing away my chance to be a mother, because I love my job.

Marketplace host (and full disclosure: my friend) (just kidding that wasn’t disclosure, that was a brag) Lizzie O’Leary investigates the proliferation in the number of companies, particularly in Silicon Valley, that have started offering egg freezing as part of their benefits plan. It’s a double-edged sword: on one hand, the crazy luxury benefits that some companies offer — — free haircuts, personal grocery shoppers, nap pods — — are just boons to ultimately to make the employee more productive; i.e., the less time they have to spend out in the world, taking care of their errands, the more time they can spend doing work. On the other, anything that allows women more freedom and agency in their reproductive choices is a boon for me, at whatever the cost. O’Leary analyzes what exactly that will mean: both for the companies and for the women themselves.