Social egg freezing (also called elective egg freezing) is the process of preserving a woman’s eggs (oocytes) for non-medical reasons, typically to delay childbearing for personal, career, or lifestyle choices. Unlike medical egg freezing—which is done before treatments like chemotherapy—social egg freezing is chosen by women who wish to extend their fertility window and have biological children later in life.

In this procedure, hormone injections are used to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs, which are then retrieved, frozen, and stored for future use. When the woman is ready to conceive, the eggs can be thawed, fertilized with sperm, and transferred to the uterus through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Social egg freezing is becoming increasingly popular among women in their late 20s to late 30s who want to secure their chances of having children later, especially as fertility declines with age. While it provides more reproductive options, it doesn’t guarantee pregnancy, and success rates depend on the age at which the eggs are frozen—the younger, the better.