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How a ban is forcing China’s ‘leftover women’ abroad to freeze their eggs

SHANGHAI — Ms Le Le, a lingerie designer from Shanghai, has been to Japan many times, but her recent trip to Osaka was not for sight-seeing but to freeze her eggs.

Human eggs being processed for freezing at The Fertility Institute in Encino, California. The American state is a destination of choice for mainland women who want to have their eggs frozen. Photo: AFP

Human eggs being processed for freezing at The Fertility Institute in Encino, California. The American state is a destination of choice for mainland women who want to have their eggs frozen. Photo: AFP

SHANGHAI — Ms Le Le, a lingerie designer from Shanghai, has been to Japan many times, but her recent trip to Osaka was not for sight-seeing but to freeze her eggs.

“I have been thinking of this issue for more than one year. It is necessary for me to take out some eggs at a time when egg quality is good and to preserve them for future use. It enables me to have the flexibility in deciding the timing to have a baby,” said Ms Le.

The 35-year-old said she did so as she is aware that the quality of women’s eggs declines as they grow older. She said: “I have not found my Mr Right. So I don’t want to be waiting passively, but to take a proactive action (by freezing my eggs).”

She added that she did not have to “force myself to marry someone I don’t love for the sake of having a baby”.

Years ago, freezing eggs made headlines when United States technology giants such as Apple, Microsoft and Facebook offered to cover the fees for this service for female staff in an effort to retain talent. The Japanese city of Urayasu last year also announced it would subsidise the cost of freezing eggs to boost the country’s low birth rate as the population ages.

Freezing eggs has been increasingly embraced as an option by mainland urban women, especially those who are single and financially independent. But unlike their foreign counterparts, mainland single women have to freeze their eggs abroad since this procedure is banned in domestic hospitals.

Under Chinese regulations, people who want to undergo egg-freezing surgery at domestic hospitals need to present a marriage certificate and the government’s approval document first.

Apart from Japan for its proximity to China, another destination of choice for egg-freezing would be California. A woman who flew to the American state in July last year to freeze her eggs was Ms Tina Li, 25, an administration worker at an e-learning company. As she has ovarian cancer, egg-freezing can serve as a preliminary measure to keep her fertile, she said. Another reason, she said, is that she does not like to rush into a relationship just because of her singlehood.

She added: “This regulation is unreasonable. I have the final say of my own body. The government shouldn’t rule on whether I can freeze my own eggs.”

Her sentiments are echoed by most netizens who tend to see child-bearing as a personal decision that the state should not have a say in.

In an online poll two years ago, 76 per cent of 3,200 users of the Sina.com social media site said they supported the idea of freezing eggs for future use as an alternative to having babies, while 18 per cent opposed it, saying that children need a complete family.

Two-thirds of those polled thought the country’s move to bar single women from using the practice was unreasonable and infringed on their right to have a baby, but another 30 per cent said they supported this regulation, for fear of social problems they said could be caused by egg-freezing.

Chinese women have been marrying later in life in recent decades. In Shanghai, the country’s commercial capital, the age for a woman’s first marriage used to be around 20. By 2014, the age was 28, according to figures from the municipal civil affairs authority.

But there is still some prejudice against this trend, so much so that there is even a derogatory term of “leftover women” coined for the millions who remain unmarried beyond their late 20s.

Single Chinese women are often under parental pressure to tie the knot before a certain age, such as 30; otherwise, they are told, they will be too old to conceive.

Single Chinese women have become more receptive to freezing their eggs after film star Xu Jinglei told a press conference two years ago that she went to the US in 2013 to freeze her eggs.

Ms Xu, now 43, told the media that she is not ready for marriage or having a baby. She said she regretted not having her eggs frozen earlier.

Leading travel website ctrip.com has begun offering a seven-day California tour which includes a pit-stop at a local clinic to undergo egg-freezing. The tour package costs at least 150,000 yuan (S$30,680), according to the website.

Reproductive Partners Medical Group, a US-based company which has operated a Beijing office for five years, has sent between 25 and 35 women a month for infertility care and egg-freezing to its clinics in southern California.

Most of its clients are from mainland China and they are mostly aged above 40. According to Mr Robert Rosen, the company’s managing director for Asia, it is too late for egg-freezing or in vitro fertilisation services when one is over 40.

“For a woman (aged) about 27, she can produce around 30 eggs a month, 90 per cent of which are of high quality. But for a woman in her 40s, she can only produce five eggs per month, with just one to two eggs being good quality,” he said.

Many women only come to realise the need to freeze their eggs when they turn about 40. Also, at more than 100,000 yuan, the cost of this operation is out of reach for most young women, said Mr Rosen, who added that China’s policy that bans single women from freezing their eggs is contradictory.

“The big reason for this is that women want to save their fertility before they find their right partner,” he said. “A small percentage of women do egg-freezing because they have cancer or disease.”

Ms Zoe Zhu, co-founder of Shanghai-based Xin Health which introduces women to egg-freezing in Japan, said that while she has received many queries for her company’s services, the parents of single women object. They worry that the ovaries-stimulating drug would make their daughters reach menopause earlier.

Ms Le has the support of her family, but not from her friends who do not understand her choice to freeze her eggs. Their guess is that she has lost faith in love.

“I tell them that egg-freezing and marriage are two different things,” Ms Le said. “Egg-freezing just gives me more choices and chances. After reviewing my capabilities, I think there’s no problem to raise a baby by myself alone.”

For Ms Tina Li, getting her eggs frozen was a “milestone” in her life. She said she felt relaxed after the operation since she could now focus on her work and live her own life, rather than feeling pressured to look for a boyfriend.

“The only thing is that my parents (have) become worried about me,” she said. “They say I will have a firmer attitude against the consideration of marriage.” SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

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