AOC joins thousands of women putting fertility on ice

While analysts speculate whether Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) will launch a Senate or presidential bid, she's planning another part of her future: having kids.

The big picture: Few prospective parents are weighing a White House bid, but Ocasio-Cortez is among a growing number of people freezing their eggs to preserve the possibility of having children later.

Context: Jessica Ryniec, a Boston-based OB/GYN and reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist, tells Axios she sees "more and more people for egg freezing every year" for many reasons.

• That includes people pursuing education, dedicating time to busy careers, planning to seek gender-affirming care or recognizing they may face fertility issues down the road, among other hurdles.

Catch up quick: Ocasio-Cortez, the 36-year-old potential torchbearer of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) progressive movement, shared videos of herself on Instagram administering her medicine and discussing the costs of egg freezing, which she said her insurance did not cover.

• "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," said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

By the numbers: Egg freezing has boomed in popularity, with the number of patients undergoing the process nearly quadrupling between 2014 and 2021, per a UCLA study.

• Meanwhile, fertility rates have been dropping since 2007, though the trend varies by age: While the fertility rate fell between 2024 and 2025 for teens and women in their early 20s, it rose for those in their 30s and 40s.

Between the lines: Barbara Collura, a leader in infertility advocacy and founder of Vital Voices Consulting, says there are myriad reasons women are having children later, with the cost of living high on the list.

• "Buying a first home, all of these things that people wrap up in their image ... of where I need to be in life before I start that family, that's all been, in many ways, thrown out the window," she says.
• Danielle Melfi, the CEO of REVOLVE: The National Infertility and Family Building Association, says "we are taught all of the ways to not get pregnant," but "are taught none of the ways on how to get pregnant."
• That's why Ocasio-Cortez sharing her story is "so meaningful," she says: "it creates the space for other young women to ask the questions that they might have just been wrestling with alone."

Caveat: Having a child later in life can involve additional risks, while freezing eggs doesn't guarantee a future pregnancy.

• There's no one-size-fits-all answer to what age is best for freezing one's eggs. While egg quality declines through one's 30s and 40s, a younger person may not be able to afford an elective procedure.
• Ryniec says that "for many people, 32 to 34, even up to 36, is is actually a very smart time to think about it."

The other side: Critics took aim at the congressman's age, relationship timeline or falling fertility rates as they criticized her decision. Stigma remains, with fertility and reproductive rights at the crux of cultural, economic and political debates

• A major recent chapter in the fertility fight came in February 2024, when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) were children under state law, temporarily pausing treatment in the state.
• That moment kicked Melfi "into high gear" to freeze her eggs at 33.
• "For me, even though I knew it would not be a guarantee," she says," I wanted to give myself every chance that I could to have biological children."

Go deeper: AOC's family plans spark a look at presidents with newborns