Egg freezing becomes a labor benefit – 03/25/2023 – Market

A few years ago, business administrator Beatriz Vilarinho, 35, was invited by Market Livre to take a position in Minas Gerais. The executive declined and indicated the reason: she was preparing to become a mother and a change of state did not fit into her plans.

A year later, a new hiring opportunity arose, this time in São Paulo, the city of Beatriz. Once again, in the selection process, she made it clear that she was trying to get pregnant. “I was aware that, for many companies, this is a factor that discourages hiring, but I insisted on being objective”, she says.

To Beatriz’s surprise, not only was she hired, but she found out that the company had a program that offered the opportunity to freeze eggs for employees who had been with the job for more than a year. She looked forward to completing her first 12 months as senior transport manager for Market Livre in Brazil. She froze the eggs in January 2022, given the difficulty of getting pregnant.

“But then it clicked for me. I was already 34 years old and I thought it was the moment. The company knew of my intention and I felt welcomed. In April, three months after the procedure, I had the artificial insemination”, says Beatriz , who had the twins Gustavo and Maria Isabela in December.

“It’s an incredible benefit, which I didn’t even know existed in Brazil”, says Beatriz, who is on maternity leave for six months. “There is a certain taboo in the executive environment when a woman wants to be a mother, because they implicitly expect you to put your career as a priority. But I felt that my choice was respected”, says the executive, who still has two embryos frozen. “For any eventuality,” she teases her.

Companies like Market Livre, Fleury and Meta (owner of Facebook) are starting to offer the possibility of freezing eggs as a benefit to attract and retain talent. As women become mothers at an increasingly later age, generally to gain space in the labor market, egg freezing appears as an alternative to reconcile professional and personal life.

According to data from the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), the total number of women aged 30 or over who become mothers in Brazil increased from 24% in 2000 to 38% in 2020 (4% are mothers aged 40 or over ). Most still have children between 20 and 29 years old (48.7%), but at a lower rate than at the beginning of this century, when this age group accounted for 54.5%.

With more women scheduling motherhood for after 30, the egg freezing offer is emerging as a factor in attracting and retaining talent, says psychologist Karin Parodi, partner at Career Center, a career management and leadership development consultancy.

“Organizations have evolved to be more diverse and inclusive. But getting to the top requires dedication – just as motherhood does too. It is very positive to see companies considering alternatives so that family life and career do not come into conflict”, says the specialist, after – Graduated in human resources administration.

For Karin, the initiative is commendable, although still restricted to some companies. “It’s an expensive benefit.”

At Market Livre, for example, the procedure for freezing eggs is offered only to female employees (and not to female employees), through a 75% allowance for the treatment, up to a limit of US$ 5 thousand (R $26 thousand). The cost of medication and maintaining the eggs is the responsibility of the employee, who is free to choose the doctor and clinic.

The total cost of freezing eggs ranges from R$ 15,000 to R$ 20,000 – but this amount does not include fertilization, which gives rise to the embryo. To keep the eggs frozen, the cost is around R$ 1,000 per year.

According to Mônica Rosenburg, benefits manager at Market Livre in Brazil, the possibility of freezing eggs is offered to all levels of the company. “Women feel pressure to get pregnant as they get older,” she says. “With egg freezing, she is free to choose the best time.”

Anyone who wants to get the feature needs to be at least 33 years old and have been with the e-commerce company for at least one year. Women represent around 45% of the Market Livre team, with 15,000 employees. In senior management, they add up to 38%. Since 2019, 15 female employees have already used the benefit.

Companies extend benefit to spouse

In the Fleury group, specialized in diagnostic medicine, the fertility program started to be offered in 2021, as a benefit aimed at both women and men. The company pays up to 40% of the cost of the treatment, which in this case involves retrieving eggs, in vitro fertilization, freezing eggs, sperm and embryos. Medication costs are not included.

“In addition to the fertilization procedure, we have other initiatives covered by the company to support employees in family planning”, says Afrânio Haag, director of people and culture at the Fleury group. Among these procedures are the placement of IUDs (female contraceptive method), hysteroscopy (which detects infertility in women), varicocele (which indicates infertility in men) and vasectomy (surgery for male sterilization).

In all these procedures, including the fertility program, the company invests around R$ 500,000 a year, according to Haag. In all, there are 13,500 employees, 80% of whom are women. In leadership positions, they add up to 68%. “Taking care of health encompasses doing the best family planning”, says the executive. “This translates into an improvement in the work climate, in the psychological safety of employees, in addition to being a currency for retaining talent, reducing turnover and possible departures”, he says.

At the Brazilian branch of the American conglomerate Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, the Fertility Assistance Benefit is granted: a lifetime value per employee, which can be used for expenses with consultations, diagnoses, fertility preservation and tissue storage, assisted reproduction (IUI and IVF) and all medications related to the fertility process.

The program began to be offered in July last year and covers not only employees (men and women), but their respective partners.

“Companies must create benefit solutions that meet increasingly individualized needs, in tune with the demands of society today”, says Thais Mingardo, remuneration and benefits manager at Meta for Latin America.

According to Thais, the benefit is offered through a partner, Carrot, a global fertility care platform, which has a network of clinics. “We are not talking only and exclusively about a reimbursement, but about a benefit that supports decision-making and the family planning journey”, she says. “We want this woman to have the psychological support and medical follow-up necessary to help her throughout the entire process.”

Meta does not say how much it invests in the program, it just says that it is “above what is offered by the market”. The company also does not reveal how many employees it has in Brazil or its breakdown by gender. It just says that, globally, women represent 37% of leadership positions.

‘Infertility is democratic’

In the opinion of physician Matheus Roque, scientific director of the Mater Prime human reproduction clinic, family planning is a constitutional right, and health plans should cover the egg freezing procedure.

“It’s something that gives women autonomy, they have greater decision-making power over when to get pregnant”, says he, who is a member of the Brazilian Society of Assisted Reproduction and ESHRE (American Society of Reproductive Medicine). “Many are career-focused or don’t have a partner yet, but have to deal with the time factor.”

The specialist points out that, after the age of 35, the chances of getting pregnant will decrease naturally. “As the woman gets older, the eggs age, the risks of miscarriage and chromosomal diseases increase”, he says. “The freezing of eggs is an alternative to revert the damage to the stock and to the quality of these eggs”, he says, emphasizing that the freezing time does not interfere with the quality of the egg.

The ideal is that the freezing occurs between the ages of 30 and 35, he says. “But I’ve had a patient who froze the eggs at 42 and became a mother at 44”, she says. There are also cases in which the woman is in menopause and becomes pregnant – but with donated eggs. “I’ve already assisted a 52-year-old patient who gave birth in this condition.”

Matheus Roque also draws attention to the lack of discussion around male infertility, which indicates a macho look at the difficulty of getting pregnant. “Infertility is something democratic, observed in the same proportion between men and women”, he says. “But for society, the difficulty of getting pregnant is still seen as a female problem.”