Inspired by Jennifer Aniston, Woman Freezes Eggs

By Melissa Fleur Afshar

Life and Trends Reporter

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Hetal Patel, a successful, career-focused 36-year-old based in Manhattan, New York, has always wanted a family of her own, but as she grew older and relationships fizzled out, worried about bringing a child into the world with the "wrong" person.

Wanting to protect both her chance of raising a child with a compatible partner and her right to decide if and when to become mother to a biological child at all, she opted to freeze her eggs. But it was one slight detail—Jennifer Aniston’s viral admission that she regretted not doing the same thing—that spurred her to act.

“Jennifer Aniston’s interview played a real part in motivating me to consider egg freezing,” Patel told Newsweek. “Watching her speak about her journey made me understand something I had been avoiding for a long time.

"One day your body can simply take that choice away from you, even if your heart is still holding on to the hope of becoming a mother. There was a moment in Aniston's interview where the pain in her eyes felt so clear, and then she shifted back into her usual, joyful and radiant self. That contrast stayed with me for months and it made me think about how many women carry that quiet grief alone."

The finance professional and part-time content creator is among a growing number of women confronting the idea of future infertility—not just through science, but through stories, social media and the shifting timelines of adulthood.

From the early 2010s, when the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) stated that egg freezing was no longer ‘‘experimental," rates of women seeking the procedure have continued to rise. The egg freezing startup Cofertility shared that over 40,000 people froze their eggs in 2023, compared to around 29,000 in 2022.

Patel took to TikTok on November 13 under @hetall_patell to chronicle the emotional and physical toll of egg freezing. Her moving clip has been viewed over 362,000 times.

“I wanted to tell other women that it is completely acceptable to choose yourself and create your own path,” she said. "And I wanted someone out there to feel less alone in their decision."

Do We Still Need To Freeze Our Eggs?

In a world where female fertility is often framed as something that vanishes into dust after 30, Patel’s story emerges alongside new research suggesting the science is more nuanced.

While fertility will vary from person to person, a study published in Science Advances found that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in human oocytes—a female germ cell essential for reproduction—is protected from the types of age-related mutations that accumulate in other tissues.

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In blood and saliva, mutations increase with age, but in oocytes, harmful mutations with high frequencies were rarer and more evenly distributed elsewhere, suggesting a form of natural quality control.

The research points to a slower biological degradation or a certain resistance to aging in egg cells than often feared—complicating the prevailing narrative that fertility will inevitably plummet by a woman’s 30s in every case.

Rachel Goldberg seconds this. The therapist, who includes infertility and third-party reproduction as one of her specialisms, told Newsweek: "Yes, fertility fears are encouraging women to pursue egg freezing...Not everyone needs to panic or freeze their eggs. But if you're in your late 20s or early 30s and having biological children matters to you, it's smart to at least check your baseline fertility, especially if you're not ready. And definitely if you have symptoms like very painful or irregular periods."

While she sees how much younger, healthy women have been impacted by fertility fearmongering online, the therapist recognizes that in many cases concerns are not unwarranted.

"I work with clients who are now facing the reality that they can't have biological children or need to go through lengthy, uncertain fertility treatments," she said. "A lot of them tell me they wish someone had talked about this when they were younger.

"You don't know what you don't know, and now people have access to more information...It's not that everyone needs to freeze their eggs; it's that more people should be checking in with a knowledgeable provider and staying informed about their options."

Despite Goldberg's nuanced view, the dominant narrative around women's fertility rapidly decreasing after 30 has had power, particularly on millennial and Gen X women for some time, and Patel felt it pressing down.

“As an Indian American woman, there has always been pressure to do things at the right time. Married by 27. Baby by 30. Follow the plan,” she said. “That was never my timeline.”

Patel rejected the advice of older relatives who told her to “settle” for a partner who met 20 to 40 percent of her needs.

“I refused to build my life on that," she said.

But choosing to freeze her eggs, she said, was a decision grounded in clarity—not fear or defiance.

“I am not ready for a baby in this exact moment, but I do want the option to have one in a couple of years," she said. "Egg freezing became the way I could protect that possibility for myself, instead of waiting for someone else’s timing to align with mine.”

But the process was far from simple. The egg freezing cycle lasted four weeks, but the emotional weight of it distorted her sense of time.

“I gained 10 pounds of water weight in two weeks because of the medication,” she said. “It took more than a year to lose it.”

At the time, she was also in a relationship she believed would lead to marriage and children. She debated whether to go through with the challenging procedure at all, considering her relationship status.

“Thank God I did,” she said. “Because he was not the one.”

Patel said her doctor at Spring Fertility in New York, Dr. Yoder, played a critical role in helping her navigate the self-doubt and anxiety that bubbled up when she dove headfirst into the process.

“He kept reminding me, ‘you could walk out of here today, meet someone tomorrow, and have a baby next year. Your body is healthy. You are doing this as a safety net,'" she said.

Still, the shame and stigma of needing that “safety net” were difficult to ignore. Patel regretted not taking advantage of a previous employer’s offer to cover egg freezing costs, especially because the procedure is not a firm guarantee of having children.

“All of this was running through my mind while my hormones were spiking, and I still had to show up at work like a fully functioning adult," she said.

The retrieval phase also brought its own trauma. Three days before the procedure, doctors saw only one or two viable eggs. Patel turned to the egg freezing outcome estimator and saw just a 16 percent chance of a baby with a single egg.

“I cried for hours,” she said. “I was putting my body through so much and spending money I did not really have for a chance that felt so small.”

But on the day of retrieval, her lucked changed, and she got eight eggs. She recalled "crying" from relief.

Even with a community supporting her, the journey still left scars.

“There were days I felt strong and certain, and days I cried on my bathroom floor,” she said. “There were moments when the cultural pressure of being an Indian American woman made me feel like I had already failed some imaginary timeline.”

Patel now uses her growing platform to advocate for open conversations about fertility. She started posting about fashion a few years ago as a creative outlet, but going viral after sharing her egg freezing story, she said, was never the goal.

The comments she has received since have ranged from logistical questions about cost and timing to shaming attacks.

“Of course, there were comments that tried to shame me for prioritizing my career, for not working hard enough to find a husband, or for being open to single motherhood," she said. "None of that surprised me, but it reminded me why I posted in the first place.”

Her takeaway from the experience is a message aimed directly at women who feel stuck, uncertain, or pressured to follow a predetermined timeline.

“If I could give any advice to women considering egg freezing, it would be this: do it from a place of clarity, not fear," she said. "Do it because you want the option to build a family in your own time, in your own way, without waiting for someone else’s readiness to finally align with yours.

“Most of all, know this, that you do not need to wait for a partner to value your dreams. Choosing yourself is still choosing family."

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