Are men responsible for 'Motherhood on Ice' a.k.a., women freezing their eggs?

Oöcyte cryopreservation or women electing to "freeze their eggs," is in trend these days. But is it actually a trendor even "a calculated act by women to hack their fertility" by extending their "ticking clocks" using medical intervention?

A new book by a Yale professor says that actually, men are to blame for more and more women choosing "Motherhood on Ice."

Incidentally, that is the book's name. "Motherhood on Ice" by leading anthropologist Marcia C Inhorn says that the rise of the practice is not because selfish career-driven women want to skirt motherhood and the responsibilities it comes with.

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Talking to the Guardian, Inhorn reveals that when she embarked on research for her book, "there was a lot of either blaming women or saying that they’re naïve, stupid and so forth," while in academic circles, a "planned, almost feminist, narrative" blamed women for intentionally hacking their fertility.

However, her research and the more than 150 women she talked to for her book revealed that the problem can be summed up in one word: "Men".

There exists a "mating gap," to put it simply, in the US, there is a dearth of suitable educated men.

Inhorn and her fellow co-authors Dr Pasquale Patrizio, director of the Yale Fertility Center, and Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli of the University of Haifafound that in the US and in the UK, high-earning working women in their late 30s who opted for freezing their eggs were primarily single because "they just couldn't find that reproductive partner."

"They weren’t freezing to advance; they were facing the overarching problem of partnership."

Inhorn says that this is reflected by the growing gap between men and women pursuing higher education. Four years ago, in 2019, in the US, there were 28 per cent more women opting for higher education. Soon, as per projections, it'll be two university-educated women per one similarly educated man.

Not only this, there is also the "men as partners problem."

Guardian reports that many women told Inhorn of their desire for an egalitarian relationship, i.e., one that is based on equality; even in terms of education level. However, many were ready to settle for someone with lower educational qualifications but had trouble finding a partner who isn't intimidated by their success.

Some even resorted to downplaying or exempting their educational qualifications from their dating profiles. To not "put men off," some hired professionals to help with their profile.

Watch |Singapore egg-freezing ban forces women to head overseas

"Sometimes men would joke or insult them about their jobs or say ‘you’re smarter than I am, I can’t go out with you’. I mean, just really blatant kinds of misogyny and discrimination," she told Guardian.

Then there arethe "Peter Pans," men who refuse to grow up. "They may be educated men who have money and so forth, but they want to play around and have a lot of fun and may not partner at all, or may not partner well into their 40s and 50s," she explains.

Of the 150 women Inhorn interviewed, only 36 did so because of medical reasons. The anthropologist predicts that with time, egg freezing for career planning will increase among women in their mid to late- 20s, but that partnership problems will remain a key driver.

(With inputs from agencies)

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