[MUSIC]
I've been thinking about freezing
my eggs, but before we go deep into
that decision, come with me 20
years ago, to Cartero.
A small, beautiful, mostly Catholic
and very conservative city, around
two hours north of Mexico City.
I'm eight years old and I've
decided that I am not having kids.
All I've seen all my life is that
having kids will slow down my
career, but I want to become
a doctor when I grow up.
All my friends' moms do is stay
home and take care of us kids.
I thought that this was the norm.
But one day, my mom told me how she
always dreamed of becoming
a psychologist and helping others.
But she had to give up this dream
the moment that my brother and
I were born.
I was devastated, I couldn't stop
thinking about all the people that
she would have been able to help,
but I was far from being alone.
In our generation, Millennials and
Gen Zers, more than 30% grew up
with a stay at home mom.
The previous generation was
different, as more than 60% grew up
with a stay at home mom.
Our grandmas were told that they
had to stay home and take care
of kids, no questions asked.
Just as their mothers have, and
their mothers before them, choice
was not a word in their vocabulary.
Our moms were different.
For the first time in history,
they were given a choice, study and
have a professional career or
have a family.
They could choose one or the other,
but not both.
And today, thanks to all the
amazing technological advancements,
and specifically, through
the science of egg freezing,
we face a very different question.
Can we focus now when we are young,
full of ambition and
energy on our careers, and
have kids later in life?
Can we truly have it all?
To the men in the audience,
thank you for being here.
You might be wondering,
does this even apply to me?
Well, if you've ever thought about
having kids now or in the future,
or if you're a father today,
this applies to you.
So what is egg freezing?
Most people have at least a basic
understanding of what egg freezing
is, but there are so
many questions on our minds.
What's the procedure like?
Do I need to undergo anesthesia?
At what age should I do it?
Is it risky?
Is it painful?
Does it even apply to me?
So many questions, but don't worry,
I've got you.
Egg freezing is a process in which
a woman's eggs are extracted,
frozen, and stored for
later use, usually in the next five
to ten years.
This is typically a minimally
invasive outpatient procedure and
it requires the use of local or
general anesthesia depending
on the patient.
Egg freezing has many different
uses, from health concerns, to
identity choices, to the decisions
in the timing of your career.
This last one is usually referred
to as social egg freezing.
Now, I want you to meet my friend,
Lisa.
Lisa is 35 years old and she always
has dreamed of having four kids.
Even though she wants to get
pregnant now, she worries whether
she will be able to have the family
of her dreams or not.
Women are born with a finite number
of eggs, and
this number decreases as women age.
As published in the UCLA Journal
of Women, a woman's fertility drops
from 86% when we are 20 years
old to 52% when we are 35,
just as a case of Lisa, to only 5%
when we are 45 years old.
Now, this doesn't mean that women
can't get pregnant and
carry a child as they grow older.
But given that our fertility is so
low, the chances of naturally
getting pregnant
decrease significantly.
However, recent studies have
shown that during the procedure of
egg freezing, if you're able
to retrieve 20 or more eggs,
the chances of having a life birth
rate increases up to 70%.
And the younger that you freeze
your eggs,
the more likely it is you will
be able to retrieve this number.
Now, I want you to meet my friend,
Maria.
Maria just graduated from college
and she struggled to enter a very
competitive industry.
And she wonders, how far should I
go into my career before shifting
my attention to having a family?
Women's fertility window
coincides with the most important
years of career advancement and
productivity.
But as women decide to have
their first child later in life,
social egg freezing provides us
with a viable solution to be able
to focus on our career now when we
are young and ambitious, and
be able to have a family later
without having to sacrifice one or
the other.
Now, a caveat, social egg freezing
does not guarantee getting pregnant
in the future.
So don't believe those that tell
you that egg freezing is
an insurance policy.
And there are many considerations
that you need to talk with your
doctor too.
But to me,
egg freezing is empowering.
There are many benefits to women
taking control of their fertility
and freezing their eggs.
We can draw a parallel back to
the 1960s when single women gained
access to birth control pills.
During the 20 years after this,
the number of female lawyers,
doctors, and judges multiplied
between 4 times and
13 times in the US alone.
Can you imagine having the number
of women becoming scientists,
startup founders, partners at
BCs and held funds multiplying like
this again?
Egg freezing can become our
generation's way of going around
the biological glass ceiling, and
allowing us to focus on our career
without having to sacrifice our
fertile years and
be able to have the family that
we'd always wanted to.
Now lastly,
I want you to meet Priscilla.
Priscilla has
thought about freezing her eggs for
the past year, but she hasn't even
started the process because of what
egg freezing says about her.
She grew up having a very clear
idea of when and
how she wanted to start a family.
And egg freezing means that she
wasn't able to achieve this.
So if you're thinking right now,
why me, why now?
I know it can be scary, but just as
you wouldn't join a company without
doing any research about it, or
you wouldn't make any financial
decision without knowing how much
money you have in the bank, we need
to have all the information.
And whether egg freezing ends up
being for you or not, or
the special women in your life,
information is power.
So if you're anything like Lisa,
Maria, or Priscilla, in your 20s
to your early 30s, go and gather
all the possible information,
learn about your ovarian reserve,
your fertility status,
talk to your doctor.
One simple and
inexpensive way of doing this
is through a fertility blood test,
you'll be surprised at how valuable
this information can be.
And if you're anything like my mom,
over your 50s, not thinking about
anything related to motherhood.
Or if you're a current or
prospective father, help us,
go out there and learn about all
the technological advancements and
alternatives that exist out there.
You can change our lives.
My life certainly changed
the moment that I learned
about all of this.
And as you can imagine,
my mom now is over the moon at
the possibility that she might
become a grandmother someday.
Thank you.
>> [APPLAUSE]
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