Impressed by Jennifer Aniston, Girl Freezes Eggs—Now She Has Stark Warning

[ad_1] Hetal Patel, a profitable, career-focused 36-year-old primarily based in Manhattan, New York, has all the time wished a household of her personal, however as she grew older and relationships fizzled out, nervous about bringing a toddler into the world with the "fallacious" particular person.

Wanting to guard each her likelihood of elevating a toddler with a suitable associate and her proper to determine if and when to turn out to be mom to a organic baby in any respect, she opted to freeze her eggs. But it surely was one slight element—Jennifer Aniston’s viral admission that she regretted not doing the identical factor—that spurred her to behave.

“Jennifer Aniston’s interview performed an actual half in motivating me to contemplate egg freezing,” Patel advised Newsweek. “Watching her discuss her journey made me perceive one thing I had been avoiding for a very long time.

"In the future your physique can merely take that alternative away from you, even when your coronary heart remains to be holding on to the hope of turning into a mom. There was a second in Aniston's interview the place the ache in her eyes felt so clear, after which she shifted again into her common, joyful and radiant self. That distinction stayed with me for months and it made me take into consideration what number of girls carry that quiet grief alone."

The finance skilled and part-time content material creator is amongst a rising variety of girls confronting the thought of future infertility—not simply by way of science, however by way of tales, social media and the shifting timelines of maturity.

From the early 2010s, when the American Society for Reproductive Drugs (ASRM) acknowledged that egg freezing was now not ‘‘experimental," charges of ladies in search of the process have continued to rise. The egg freezing startup Cofertility shared that over 40,000 individuals froze their eggs in 2023, in comparison with round 29,000 in 2022.

Patel took to TikTok on November 13 underneath @hetall_patell to chronicle the emotional and bodily toll of egg freezing. Her shifting clip has been seen over 362,000 instances.

“I wished to inform different girls that it's utterly acceptable to decide on your self and create your personal path,” she mentioned. "And I wished somebody on the market to really feel much less alone of their choice."

Do We Nonetheless Want To Freeze Our Eggs? In a world the place feminine fertility is commonly framed as one thing that vanishes into mud after 30, Patel’s story emerges alongside new analysis suggesting the science is extra nuanced.

Whereas fertility will fluctuate from individual to individual, a research revealed in Science Advances discovered that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in human oocytes—a feminine germ cell important for replica—is protected against the forms of age-related mutations that accumulate in different tissues.

<img id="11098934" alt="" caption="Hetal Patel poses outdoors in New York (L) and for a photoshoot (R)." credit="@hetall_patell" sourcealt="" sources="[]" fetchpriority="auto" loading="lazy" width="3000" height="2000" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" src="color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover" sizes="(min-width: 1200px) 1536px, (min-width: 768px) 768px, 100vw" srcset="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Mom-praised-for-what-she-says-to-six-year-old-son-during-workout-1.png?w=640&quality=80&webp=1 640w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Mom-praised-for-what-she-says-to-six-year-old-son-during-workout-1.png?w=750&quality=80&webp=1 750w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Mom-praised-for-what-she-says-to-six-year-old-son-during-workout-1.png?w=1000&quality=80&webp=1 1000w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Mom-praised-for-what-she-says-to-six-year-old-son-during-workout-1.png?w=1200&quality=80&webp=1 1200w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Mom-praised-for-what-she-says-to-six-year-old-son-during-workout-1.png?w=1360&quality=80&webp=1 1360w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Mom-praised-for-what-she-says-to-six-year-old-son-during-workout-1.png?w=1600&quality=80&webp=1 1600w" bad-src="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Mom-praised-for-what-she-says-to-six-year-old-son-during-workout-1.png?w=1600&quality=80&webp=1"/> In blood and saliva, mutations enhance with age, however in oocytes, dangerous mutations with excessive frequencies have been rarer and extra evenly distributed elsewhere, suggesting a type of pure high quality management.

The analysis factors to a slower organic degradation or a sure resistance to ageing in egg cells than usually feared—complicating the prevailing narrative that fertility will inevitably plummet by a lady’s 30s in each case.

Rachel Goldberg seconds this. The therapist, who contains infertility and third-party replica as one in every of her specialisms, advised Newsweek: "Sure, fertility fears are encouraging girls to pursue egg freezing...Not everybody must panic or freeze their eggs. However if you happen to're in your late 20s or early 30s and having organic kids issues to you, it is sensible to not less than verify your baseline fertility, particularly if you happen to're not prepared. And positively you probably have signs like very painful or irregular intervals."

Whereas she sees how a lot youthful, wholesome girls have been impacted by fertility fearmongering on-line, the therapist acknowledges that in lots of circumstances issues should not unwarranted.

"I work with shoppers who at the moment are dealing with the truth that they cannot have organic kids or have to undergo prolonged, unsure fertility remedies," she mentioned. "A whole lot of them inform me they need somebody had talked about this after they have been youthful.

"You do not know what you do not know, and now individuals have entry to extra info...It is not that everybody must freeze their eggs; it is that extra individuals needs to be checking in with a educated supplier and staying knowledgeable about their choices."

Regardless of Goldberg's nuanced view, the dominant narrative round girls's fertility quickly lowering after 30 has had energy, notably on millennial and Gen X girls for a while, and Patel felt it urgent down.

“As an Indian American girl, there has all the time been stress to do issues on the proper time. Married by 27. Child by 30. Observe the plan,” she mentioned. “That was by no means my timeline.”

Patel rejected the recommendation of older kin who advised her to “settle” for a associate who met 20 to 40 p.c of her wants.

“I refused to construct my life on that," she mentioned.

However selecting to freeze her eggs, she mentioned, was a choice grounded in readability—not worry or defiance.

“I'm not prepared for a child on this actual second, however I do need the choice to have one in a few years," she mentioned. "Egg freezing turned the way in which I might shield that chance for myself, as a substitute of ready for another person’s timing to align with mine.”

However the course of was removed from easy. The egg freezing cycle lasted 4 weeks, however the emotional weight of it distorted her sense of time.

“I gained 10 kilos of water weight in two weeks due to the medicine,” she mentioned. “It took greater than a yr to lose it.”

On the time, she was additionally in a relationship she believed would result in marriage and youngsters. She debated whether or not to undergo with the difficult process in any respect, contemplating her relationship standing.

“Thank God I did,” she mentioned. “As a result of he was not the one.”

Patel mentioned her physician at Spring Fertility in New York, Dr. Yoder, performed a vital position in serving to her navigate the self-doubt and nervousness that bubbled up when she dove headfirst into the method.

“He saved reminding me, ‘you can stroll out of right here immediately, meet somebody tomorrow, and have a child subsequent yr. Your physique is wholesome. You might be doing this as a security web,'" she mentioned.

Nonetheless, the disgrace and stigma of needing that “security web” have been troublesome to disregard. Patel regretted not profiting from a earlier employer’s supply to cowl egg freezing prices, particularly as a result of the process shouldn't be a agency assure of getting kids.

“All of this was operating by way of my thoughts whereas my hormones have been spiking, and I nonetheless needed to present up at work like a completely functioning grownup," she mentioned.

The retrieval section additionally introduced its personal trauma. Three days earlier than the process, docs noticed just one or two viable eggs. Patel turned to the egg freezing end result estimator and noticed only a 16 p.c likelihood of a child with a single egg.

“I cried for hours,” she mentioned. “I used to be placing my physique by way of a lot and spending cash I didn't actually have for an opportunity that felt so small.”

However on the day of retrieval, her lucked modified, and she or he obtained eight eggs. She recalled "crying" from reduction.

Even with a group supporting her, the journey nonetheless left scars.

“There have been days I felt robust and sure, and days I cried on my rest room flooring,” she mentioned. “There have been moments when the cultural stress of being an Indian American girl made me really feel like I had already failed some imaginary timeline.”

Patel now makes use of her rising platform to advocate for open conversations about fertility. She began posting about style a couple of years in the past as a inventive outlet, however going viral after sharing her egg freezing story, she mentioned, was by no means the aim.

The feedback she has acquired since have ranged from logistical questions on price and timing to shaming assaults.

“After all, there have been feedback that attempted to disgrace me for prioritizing my profession, for not working exhausting sufficient to discover a husband, or for being open to single motherhood," she mentioned. "None of that stunned me, however it jogged my memory why I posted within the first place.”

Her takeaway from the expertise is a message aimed immediately at girls who really feel caught, unsure, or pressured to comply with a predetermined timeline.

“If I might give any recommendation to girls contemplating egg freezing, it could be this: do it from a spot of readability, not worry," she mentioned. "Do it since you need the choice to construct a household in your personal time, in your personal means, with out ready for another person’s readiness to lastly align with yours.

“Most of all, know this, that you don't want to attend for a associate to worth your desires. Selecting your self remains to be selecting household."

Is there a well being difficulty that is worrying you? Tell us through well being@newsweek.com. We will ask specialists for recommendation, and your story may very well be featured on Newsweek.