The Discourse on Social Egg Freezing in Austria: Individual Solution to a Societal Problem

Abstract

Social egg freezing (SEF) is the process of freezing a woman's eggs for non‐medical reasons to preserve her ability to become pregnant in the future. SEF is both praised as a procedure that every woman should consider to prolong fertility, and criticized for medicalizing social problems, making unrealistic promises, trivializing risks, and having a poor cost-benefit ratio. This article explores the debate surrounding SEF and societal attitudes towards it in Austria, a country currently discussing the legalization of the procedure. Ten qualitative interviews were conducted with individuals involved in the public debate on medically assisted reproduction (MAR). Thematic analysis revealed three groups of respondents - advocates, ambivalents, and one opponent - who held different views on several key themes. All groups perceived SEF as not being "the" solution to the underlying problem of balancing parenthood and work. Interviewees demanded comprehensive counseling before SEF, including information about the technical procedure and medical risks. Many interviewees characterized the Austrian debate on MAR as polarized, describing policymakers as frequently uninformed and the political system as stagnant and reluctant to reform. They also expressed a need for more public debate in an open and dialogue‐driven spirit. This article contributes to existing research by investigating the Austrian discourse on SEF, a topic that has rarely been explored. It shows that the regulation of SEF remains controversial in Austria, with attitudes towards it being based not only on the right to reproductive autonomy, but also on a wide range of broader social issues in contemporary societies.