“I have to pay for everything myself”
US MP has eggs frozen
Aug 10, 2026 – 9:37 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shows online how she injects herself with hormones – and settles accounts with the US health system. The treatment is also expensive in Germany.
The left-wing US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has announced that she will have her eggs frozen. She thinks it’s important that “we as leaders have these conversations and disclose these processes, especially for working women across the country, and normalize them,” said the politician, also known as “AOC”, in an interview with the US broadcaster ABC News. The fact that she is making the step public also has to do with the political climate: the government is denying women across the country reproductive care – from the right to abortion to care during pregnancy pregnancy.
In several posts on Instagram, the Democrat takes her audience through the first steps of treatment – for example, how she gives herself an injection. It also gives an insight into the costs. “My insurance doesn’t cover a cent of it. I have to pay for everything myself,” emphasized the 36-year-old. She saved for treatment for a long time and carefully considered the decision, she wrote.
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She took the opportunity to criticize the US healthcare system: it is dilapidated and neglects “health care for women, especially fertility treatment.”
What freezing costs – and what applies in Germany
The process is in the USA and in Germany the same thing: women inject themselves with hormones so that several eggs mature at the same time. After collection, the cells are stored at minus 196 degrees and can be thawed years later and fertilized in the laboratory.
The decisive factor for success is the woman’s age at the time of retrieval: the younger the egg, the greater the chance of a future pregnancy. In Germany, women are on average around 35 years old when they decide to do so. There is no guarantee of having a child.
In the US, depending on the clinic and city, treatment costs between $10,000 and $20,000, including medication and the first year of storage. After that, an additional $500 to $1,000 per year is added for storage. US health insurance companies generally will not cover the procedure unless there is a medical reason. Only around 20 percent of large employers offer it as an additional benefit, especially technology and financial companies.
Preventative freezing of your own eggs is also permitted in Germany. Egg donation, however, remains prohibited: no other egg cells may be inserted into a woman.
Treatment in Germany is cheaper and costs between 2,500 and 4,000 euros, depending on the clinic. In addition, the hormone preparations cost 1,000 to 1,800 euros and storage costs of around 200 to 500 euros per year. Anyone who needs several treatments and uses the eggs later will quickly pay a five-figure amount. Statutory health insurance companies generally do not cover these costs, nor do private insurers.
