A Growing Choice for Young Mums

Rising awareness and open dialogue about their reproductive autonomy is making more women explore egg-freezing as an option to plan their pregnancies

- SONALI ACHARJEE

Appetisers, drinks, selfies, and free-flowing conversation. This would have been just the average Friday night for Diksha Srivastava, a 26-year-old sales executive in Bengaluru, had it not been for the unusual theme for the occasion. Canapes and fertility. “We ate good food and discussed the importance of preserving our eggs,” she says, about the event Archish IVF clinic organised in Bengaluru in July, where women gathered to discuss how they wanted to buy more time before entering motherhood, and how assisted reproductive technologies could help them do that. In fact, that ‘egg-freezing party’ so inspired Srivastava that she soon formed a virtual community of her own with her friends, who proudly call themselves ‘The Delayed’. “We mix our own drinks at home and I share whatever I have learnt with them. None of us wants to have children for the next five to six years, so egg-freezing seems to be a fantastic option.” Freezing one’s eggs has been popular in the West for some years now, but, thanks to the increasing awareness and openness of dialogue, the trend is slowly catching on in India too, giving many young women the confidence to plan their pregnancies, and talk about it. Actor Mona Singh, for example, recently spoke about how she got her eggs frozen at the age of 34 so that she can use them when is ready to have children. Hyderabad-based Lithika Bhanu, 34, likewise freely shares her experience with egg freezing on social media. Aditi Patil, 28, is pursuing a master’s degree in Pune, and is glad that her parents are open to the idea. “They never had any issue with my decision to freeze eggs, which is why it is easy for me to talk about it. I actually think they wish they had had the option themselves,” she jokes.