Against the birth crisis, Seoul subsidizes egg freezing

With just 0.7 births per woman at the end of 2023, South Korea has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, well below the replacement rate, meaning its population is rapidly aging and declining.

The government has already invested billions of dollars to try to encourage the birth rate. Seoul authorities are now proposing to subsidize egg freezing, although experts say the move is unlikely to reverse the country’s population decline.

Jeong, in his forties, decided to seize this opportunity.

“I was under pressure to have a child because of my age, which pushed me to seek marriage quickly“, explains this Korean, who only agrees to be identified by her last name.

“When I reached my mid-30s, I suggested to the men I’ve been in relationships with that we marry as soon as possible, but it didn’t work out“, she continues.

Egg freezing theoretically allows women to preserve their fertility. But the chances of success are higher for those who do it before egg quality begins to decline, usually from age 38.

“Investing in future births”

So Jeong turned to a backup solution, freezing her eggs, and says she no longer feels “as anxious” about being single or risking not having children.

“Now that I have my frozen eggs as insurance, I can take my time” to find the right person, she told AFP.

Seoul considered that helping women freeze their eggs was “the most practical solution” to “invest in potential future births”, indicates the town hall.

According to her, “As the age of marriage and childbearing continues to decline and women’s participation in society becomes more important, there is growing interest from single women who aspire to be able to conceive and give birth in the future“.

Concretely, however, this program will only help women who marry and have a baby through intrauterine insemination (IUI) or in vitro fertilization (IVF), because these procedures are practically impossible to obtain for single or same-sex couples. , with many clinics requiring marriage certificates.

Egg freezing technology has been available in South Korea since the late 1990s, but the procedure was little known and in low demand.

Until recent years, only women with cancer who were at risk of losing their fertility were interested in the procedure, said Cha Kwang-yul, who heads the CHA Medical Center. Recently, “the culture changed and people started saying ‘if you’re not going to get married, save your eggs’“.

“N-Po Generation”

However, these measures do not take into account major societal changes, according to experts.

Young South Koreans describe themselves as the “n-Po” generation, those who have abandoned many of their elders’ goals such as marriage, parenthood and home ownership, because of stagnant growth and intense competition for jobs.

In 2022, there were 3.7 marriages per 1,000 people in South Korea, a historic low. And single-person households now represent 41% of the total.

However, single parenthood remains very stigmatized in this country and marginal, explains Hyeyoung Woo, professor of sociology at Portland State University (United States), to AFP.

In 2020, only 2.5% of South Korean babies were born out of wedlock, compared to the OECD average of 40%.

Subsidize egg freezing”will not effectively address Korea’s low birth rate“, she believes.

Instead, she recommends encouraging marriages, or a second child, through housing and tax assistance measures, childcare and parental leave.

The country must also “accept more the various forms of family“, helping singles and same-sex couples if they want to have children, she suggests.

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