Social media VIP, Facebook, and Technology giant, Apple, are now offering women employees a different kind of perk-their coverage now includes paying employees for freezing their eggs. Facebook began to coverage recently and Apple will soon be following suit in January.
Egg freezing advocate, Bridget Adams, is also the founder of Eggsurance.com, which is an online patient forum that is dedicated to the movement. She says that offering this additional benefit to women employees is assigned the companies are investing and supporting women in trying to create the lives that they want. Adams said, "Having a high-powered career and children is still very hard thing to do."
Egg freezing is a process that allows women to keep their eggs in storage and, if successful, it essentially "puts their fertility on ice" until the day comes when they are ready to become parents. This procedure, however, typically costs upwards of $10,000 for every sequence, with an additional $500 fee, or more, for annual storage.
Being situated and Silicon Valley where their industries are prevalently male-dominated, adding this type of coverage may just give Facebook and Apple the edge that they need to attract more top of the line female talent into their companies. Many are saying that this move is quite in keeping with the times, especially as many women dedicate most of their childbearing years to building their careers. Fertility expert, Philip Chennette, said that the coverage provided for egg freezing could be considered as a type of "payback" for the level of commitment that these women give to their jobs. Facebook currently covers the procedure under its surrogacy benefit, while Apple will cover for the costs under the fertility benefit. Both coverage schemes will amount to about $20,000. Female employees at Facebook have already begun making good use of this opportunity this year and are reportedly already using their coverage.