Have eggs, will travel. To freeze them.

But the women whose trips are being planned by a new company called Milvia are going for a different reason: to freeze their eggs.

Every detail of their trip, from their flights to their hormonal medication to their doctor’s appointments, is being arranged by Milvia, whose focus is to make egg freezing more accessible by taking women to places where the procedure is cheaper.

The company estimates that millions of women in the United States want to freeze their eggs but that only a tiny percentage has been able to, said Abhi Ghavalkar, a founder and CEO of the company.

Egg freezing takes about two weeks and may allow a woman to extend her fertility. Typically the patient injects herself with hormones to stimulate the ovaries, and then a specialist retrieves the eggs and puts them on liquid nitrogen for future use.

Milvia found that in the United States, the entire process — including medications, doctor visits and the average number of years of egg storage — costs about $18,000, and most women can’t count on health insurance to cover it. As of 2020, less than 20% of U.S. companies with more than 20,000 employees had health insurance plans that cover the procedure, according to Mercer Health News, though that figure rose from 2015 to 2020.

Many countries have clinics that are much cheaper. In the Czech Republic and Spain, for example, you can get one round of egg freezing for under $5,400, according to the website of Freeze Health, which provides information on egg freezing around the world.

Milvia is taking its first women to Britain, where prices hover in the $7,000 range, because “we wanted to start in a place where there is no language or cultural barrier,” Ghavalkar said. “We also want to make sure we’re in a place where all clinics operate at very high standards.” The company hasn’t finalized the price for its trip to Britain but hopes to keep it under $10,000.

Women who freeze their eggs abroad can choose to keep their eggs in that country, where storage costs are usually cheaper. (Pic source: Pexels)

Just as there are trendy places to go on vacation, there are now egg freezing “hot spots,” according to Jennifer Lannon, a founder of Freeze Health.

“I would say Mexico and Spain are the two hottest places right now,” based on where people are searching, she said. “Mexico because if you are going somewhere nearby, it’s close and just so much less expensive. Barcelona because it is such a sexy city, there is never a bad reason to go, but also it’s the most advanced country in Europe for research and new developments.”

According to Grand View Search, a market research firm, the global fertility tourism market, including people traveling to the United States, is expected to grow by 30% over the next seven years, becoming a $6.2 billion industry by 2030.

Women who freeze their eggs abroad can choose to keep their eggs in that country, where storage costs are usually cheaper. In Canada, for example, it can cost under $200 a year to store your eggs. In Spain you can do it for a little over $200. In Los Angeles, by contrast, a year of storage costs about $750. In New York City, it’s more than $1,000, according to Freeze Health.

Many return to the same clinic to do in vitro fertilization, because that is also less expensive in other countries.

There are also a few cheaper options domestically. CNY, for example, a fertility clinic with eight locations in the United States, tries to keep costs about $3,000 (which doesn’t include medicine or pre-procedure monitoring).

Women who have traveled to freeze their eggs said it transforms the procedure, which can be arduous, into something that almost resembles a vacation.

Gillian Morris, 36, a software developer, flew from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Madrid in June 2019 for the procedure.

“So many of my friends had big tech companies paying for their egg freezing, but I had my own company, so I couldn’t afford it,” she said. “I didn’t think it was accessible to me until someone told me it costs about a fifth as much to do it in Spain.”

After she posted her plans on social media, two friends ended up joining her to freeze their eggs as well. Two of them rented an Airbnb, and in between doctor’s appointments (which happen every few days) and shots (which happen daily but can be done wherever), they acted like tourists, dining at trendy restaurants and visiting museums. Morris even took short trips to Valencia, a city along the Mediterranean Coast, and London.

Lauren Stevenson, 42, a public relations director who lives in London, traveled to Haugesund, in the fjords of Norway, to freeze her eggs after a friend found the clinic. Not only did the clinic charge one-third the price of London clinics, she said, it was also in a place on her travel bucket list.

“People talk about egg freezing in such a negative way. It’s intrusive, it’s painful,” she said. “I felt like if I was in a beautiful, serene place, it could actually be a different experience.”

She and her partner (they ended up freezing embryos) went in November 2020 during peak foliage.

“We would drive to the clinic, and even the drive would be so stunning,” she said. She said she found it relaxing to do the procedure in a place so far removed from her busy city life in Britain.

Sidonia Rose Swarm, a founder of Freeze Health, said women should book travel plans, especially flights and accommodations, that are flexible.

“You have to go to blood tests and ultrasounds on the first day of your cycle, and they might not tell you it’s not a good cycle to do it because you might not get a lot of eggs,” she said.

And prospective patients should make sure their clinic is licensed, has English-speaking medical professionals, and has a shipping partner that can send eggs to a storage facility in the United States.

Swarm also recommends taking someone with you on your travels.

“You won’t feel well, you are going to be emotional, you are going to be pumped with hormones,” she said. “You don’t want to have to navigate a new place on top of this by yourself.”

Stevenson described her experience as almost like going to a private fertility retreat: “I don’t think you meet many people who say, ‘I can’t wait to go back and get my frozen embryos.’ But that’s how I feel.”

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