‘A Great Way For Me To Have Some Peace Of Mind’ Fertility Clinics See Increase In Egg Preservation During Pandemic

By Rachel Menitoff

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    TOWSON, Maryland (WJZ) — For many women, freezing their eggs and deciding to go through fertility treatments is an insurance policy and many more decided to do it during the pandemic.

Kathryn Schoeberlein is celebrating her 37th birthday and her age was one of the reasons she wanted to freeze her eggs.

“Going through the egg preservation process was a great way for me to kind of have some peace of mind and create a little sense of an insurance policy for myself,” said Schoeberlin.

Experts at Shady Grove Fertility in Towson said they’ve noted a 60 percent increase in the number of women choosing to freeze their eggs during the pandemic.

WJZ Reporter Rachel Menitoff asked Schoeberlin, “What was it about the pandemic that motivated you to go through the fertility process?”

“A lot of it you know again has to do with time marching on while we’re all standing still during covid,” she answered.

“Well, if there’s something that I want to take care of for myself, now is a good time to do it. Now is a great time to think about where I want to be in the future and what is my life look like after covid is over,” Schoeberlin added.

She had a lot more flexibility to undergo treatment while working remotely from home. She connected with doctor Selma Amrane at Shady Grove Fertility who said the pandemic also provided time and for introspection.

“For women who aren’t quite ready to start their families yet, women have thought about their family planning goals, have had much more time to think about these things than in the past,” said Dr. Amrane

Since her treatment in December, Kathryn has gotten engaged and is now about 17 weeks pregnant. She said she’s thankful for the insurance policy she now has in the eggs that she’s been able to freeze.

“It made it so that I felt a lot more secure in knowing that I can still be a mother on that journey even though my path may have looked different than my friends or my families,” said Schoeberlin.

Dr. Amrane added that during the pandemic many people set aside some extra money because they weren’t going out to eat or traveling necessarily and they were able to put those extra funds toward their fertility treatment.

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