Later and Better? An Egg-Freezing Experiment on Delay, Priorities, and Partner Standards

Alba Bosch i Bosch , European University Institute

This project investigates whether perceiving an extended temporal horizon changes women's trajectories and priorities. It explores how the perception of “banked time,” made possible by egg freezing, reshapes the ordering of goals, the timing of life events and standards in partner and career choices. Existing research has largely focused on who freezes their eggs and why; this study instead examines the behavioral consequences of imagining a longer reproductive horizon. Egg freezing has been described as a technology that enables individuals to actively reshape their temporal experience, regaining agency over reproductive timing, offering a strategy for managing uncertainty “on one’s own time and terms”. Whilst the contraceptive pill allowed for the prevention of pregnancies when it conflicted with educational or career investment (Goldin & Lawrence, 2022), egg freezing promises to delay it without the fear of involuntary childlessness for women in their 30s, a time when investing in parenthood may compete with other life priorities. Using a between-subjects randomized survey experiment, the project examines the behavioral consequences of having hypothetical access to egg-freezing technology. The experimental design isolates the perceived effect of temporal extension while circumventing the selection biases characteristic of real-world users of egg freezing. The study investigates how perceiving extended time affects (1) the timing of transition to adulthood, (2) the prioritization of competing life domains, and (3) partner and career standards. The project ultimately aims to uncover how technologies that extend temporal horizons transform imagined futures.

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 Presented in Session P1. Families, Fertility, and the Life Course 1