AOC is freezing her eggs to 'feel more in control' of her life — and now she's offering a rare look into the costly experience

After showing off her outfit on her way to ABC News, she shows her Target lunchbox to the camera: “$15 with thousands of dollars of medicine inside.”

AOC said her decision to freeze her eggs took her time to “consider, weigh and save up for” and ultimately is something she wants to do so she can “feel more in control” of her life. She’s hoping to normalize this process and shed light on all its ups, downs and costs. Going through a medical procedure to retrieve and freeze eggs can help improve the chances of successful conception through IVF at a later time. It can be used by those looking to delay child-bearing or preserve their fertility before a medical treatment such as chemotherapy.

AOC is certainly not the only person undergoing this process, but hopes that sharing her journey will help “normalize not keeping women’s bodies in the shadows.”

A 2025 UCLA study found that between 2014 and 2021, there was a big increase in the number of planned elective egg-freezing cycles. During that time, women began freezing their eggs at younger ages, with the average age dropping from 36 years in 2014 to 34.9 in 2021.

AOC wrote: “There is so much to advocate for - from the exorbitant costs and lack of insurance coverage to addressing the enormous gaps in medical research on women and reproductive care. When I was weighing doing this, I saw very little that I could relate to. Not too long ago, I was waitressing and had to save for years to get to this moment. I wasn’t sure what it’d be like, or if it would be worth the massive investment of time, money, and the toll on my body.”

A costly experience

According to New Hope Fertility, the average cost to freeze your eggs can be up to $20,000 when all components are taken into consideration. Here’s how they break down the costs:

• One cycle of egg freezing: $4,200 to $8,000
• Medications to stimulate egg production: $2,000 to $6,000
• Storage: $500 to $1,000 per year

It is possible to reduce the costs a bit with insurance if you have it. According to a 2021 survey by Mercer, about 19% of large companies in the U.S. cover the egg-freezing procedure in their employee-based insurance plans.

Though she has the money for this process now, AOC doesn’t discount the time she spent to save up for it. Unfortunately, not everyone is keen on her sharing this experience with the public.

Public backlash

While her Instagram videos have many positive comments of people grateful for her demystifying the egg-freezing process, some public figures have made less supportive comments about it.

Far-right commentator Matt Walsh posted on X saying: “She’ll turn 37 in a couple months. If she got pregnant now, it would technically be a geriatric pregnancy. Instead she’s freezing her eggs. This desire to start having children late in life is completely baffling to me. I’ll have kids in their 20s by the time I turn 50. AOC apparently wants to have a toddler at that age. Totally backwards and ridiculous.”

AOC seems fairly immune to this kind of response, in fact, she anticipated it. “Don’t be weird about this, even though I know all of you will be,” she said on her Instagram story.