Guest blog by Ruth Abrams and Lilith Whiley
The renewed Women’s health strategy acknowledges the need to strengthen support for women at work. Alongside the Employment Rights Act 2025, which enhanced support for pregnant women and new mothers, the Department of Education (2025) has expanded funding for early years childcare. These reforms, and more, contribute to addressing the structural conditions that might impede women’s equal participation in the workforce and, importantly, they place greater emphasis on employers to enhance their provisions via innovative and inclusive policies and practices. Another policy which has recently come to the fore is the offering of fertility services to employees, by their employers. Indeed, following in the footsteps of large corporations including Apple, Meta, and Google, Chelsea football club has offered to pay for their female footballers to freeze their eggs. More sports employers are set to follow, including the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
This recent move, of signalling intent to support women’s reproductive health at work has received ample media attention. However, what does egg freezing as an employee benefit signal about our organisational and societal values? On the one hand, there is an overt acknowledgment of the often-times incompatibility of a woman’s career goals, and her potential life goals. Egg freezing provides one option to delay the decision to have a baby, whilst still making it appear possible. This can, in some cases signal a positive, genuine intent to support women’s reproductive health at work. For example, in a recent study of 545 people, participants were asked to take the role of prospective job applicants and report their view of egg freezing offering as a benefit in a hypothetical company (Keyes et al., 2025). Most views were largely positive and people believed that the hypothetical companies intended to support workers’ wellbeing rather than exploit them. However, this employee benefit also has the potential to make a theatre of reproductive rights, and the evidence suggests it needs to be treated with caution.
First and foremost, egg freezing is not a ‘quick fix’. The process of egg freezing involves a commitment to hormone injections across several cycles; attending regular medical appointments; and undergoing invasive egg retrievals with a recovery period that may differ across women. Once eggs have been harvested, they need to be safely stored, which comes at a cost. There may also come a point at which women may decide not to use the eggs in the future, a sensitive topic that is often absent from the narratives on freezing. The decision to freeze eggs is not only a personal one, but a legal and ethical one too (White and Byrne, 2025). The role of an organisation is not absent in this.
Secondly, success rates depend on several variables, including individual age, freezing and thawing methods, and more. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (2026) estimates only an 18% birth rate from women using their own frozen eggs. This relatively low number probably puts into the question the positioning of egg freezing as a reliable form of ‘reproductive insurance policy’ in delaying motherhood in exchange for career progression. In this respect egg freezing provides an imperfect solution, one that leaves structural barriers and cultural norms undeterred (Miner at el., 2021).
Finally, egg freezing indicates a work-life sacrifice and signals that work remains both a priority and expectation (Flynn and Leslie, 2023). While egg freezing may offer an attractive benefit to, potentially, prospective job applicants (Keyes et al., 2025), it can also evoke a more negative reaction amongst employees than other work-life policies (Flynn and Leslie, 2023). Evidence also suggests that workplace culture can have a direct impact on whether women take up the benefit or not (Miner et al., 2021), swaying a woman’s decision either way. Implicit norms about what is expected and what leaders role model can create expectations and may in some cases influence decisions.
The decision of when, and how to become pregnant is a highly personal one. Where egg freezing is concerned, there also needs to be consideration of wider factors including financial, societal, access to appropriate healthcare and an understanding of the risks, as well as potential benefits. As interest in women's reproductive health at work grows, organisations need to be wary of creating a reproductive health theatre, whereby highly visible initiatives signal commitment but fail to address the workplace structural barriers and workplace cultures that shape women’s experiences.
Dr Ruth Abrams is Associate Professor: Workforce, Organisation and Wellbeing,
School of Health Sciences, University of Surrey.
Dr Lilith Whiley is Associate Professor in Occupational and Organisational Psychology, University of Sussex.