Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Says She Is Freezing Her Eggs

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a congresswoman from New York, announced over the weekend that she is freezing her eggs. The 36-year-old shared the news in a series of videos on social media. She said she made this personal health decision to feel more in control of her life. Ocasio-Cortez also said she wants to help other women feel comfortable talking about topics like this one.

Ocasio-Cortez said she had been thinking about this decision for a long time and had been saving money for it. Egg freezing is an expensive procedure, and health insurance often does not pay for it. She explained that she was sharing her experience because she is in a 'privileged position' — meaning she has resources that many other women do not have. She wanted to show that even making this choice takes planning and effort.

She also said her decision came during a time when the Trump administration has been limiting access to abortion and some other reproductive health services. Ocasio-Cortez felt it was important to speak openly about women's health at a moment when these issues are in the news. There is also talk that she may run for a higher office someday. Women who seek powerful jobs often face questions about whether they plan to have children, something she said men rarely deal with.

On Sunday morning, she appeared on the TV show 'This Week With George Stephanopoulos' on ABC. She said, 'I think it's important for us as leaders to have these conversations and share these processes, especially for working women across the country, and normalize them.' She wants women everywhere to feel like it's okay to talk about these kinds of health decisions. By sharing her own story, she hopes to make the topic less uncomfortable for others.

So what exactly is egg freezing? It is a medical procedure where doctors remove eggs from a woman's body and then freeze and store them. Later, those eggs can be fertilized and grown into embryos, which can then be placed back into the uterus in hopes of the woman becoming pregnant. Women choose this procedure for many different reasons, according to UCLA Health.

Some women freeze their eggs before going through cancer treatments like chemotherapy, which can harm their ability to have children later. Others are simply not ready to have children right now but want to keep that option open for the future. A 2025 UCLA study found that between 2014 and 2021, more and more women chose to freeze their eggs, and they were doing so at younger ages. The average age dropped from 36 years old in 2014 to about 35 years old in 2021.

The same study also found something surprising: only about 5.7 percent of women who froze their eggs between 2014 and 2016 actually went back to use them within five to seven years. That means most women who freeze their eggs do not end up using them right away. Still, many say the peace of mind is worth it. Having the option available gives them more control over their futures.

The process of preparing for egg freezing takes about 10 to 12 days, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. During that time, women give themselves shots of hormone medicines every day — usually two or three injections per day. They also have regular blood tests and several ultrasound scans to check how their body is responding. Once the eggs are ready, a doctor removes them in a short surgical procedure that takes about 20 to 30 minutes, and the patient is asleep during it.

Ocasio-Cortez filmed herself giving the hormone shots into her abdomen and posted the videos for her followers to see. She joked with her audience, saying: 'Don't be weird about this. Even though I know all of you will be.' When it was over, she said it 'wasn't so bad.' Her lighthearted approach helped make a medical topic feel more relatable and less scary for people watching.