AOC Is Freezing Her Eggs — And Sharing The Process Online
This story was originally reported by Shefali Luthra of The 19th. Meet Shefali and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is taking social media followers behind the scenes as she freezes her eggs.
The New York Democrat announced Saturday night on Instagram and the next day on ABC News that she had decided to pursue the treatment to “feel more in control of my life.”
In her posts, Ocasio-Cortez described the decision to go ahead with egg freezing — including details about shopping for medication and the cost of the egg retrieval surgery — and shared a video in which she assembled the shots and injected medication into her abdomen.
In one clip, she shared advice she had received from a friend about ways to lessen the stinging from one of the drugs.
“That wasn’t so bad!” she said afterward.
Part of the decision to freeze her eggs, she said, stemmed from the expectations women face regarding building families while pursuing professional advancement.
“Men run for office, or frankly they interview for jobs, and people don’t think in the back of their minds, ‘OK, this guy’s running for office, how old is he? Oh, well, is he going to want to start a family?’” she said on Instagram.
Ocasio-Cortez confirmed to ABC News that she is considering a presidential run — a process that could start after the midterm elections.
Egg freezing has become more common in the past decade. A 2025 study from UCLA Health found that the number of people freezing their eggs quadrupled between 2014 and 2021.
Ocasio-Cortez told ABC News that she hopes her transparency could normalize a process that is rarely talked about publicly. Egg freezing is essentially the first part of in vitro fertilization, which has drawn ire from abortion opponents.
“I think we need to show more depictions of women having full lives in every context and every choice,” she said on Instagram.
Ocasio-Cortez is not the first member of Congress to freeze her eggs. Rep. Sara Jacobs, a Democrat from California, first shared her decision to do so in 2021.
