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Seen At 11: Beating The Biological Clock With Egg-Freezing 'Parties'

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Putting off marriage and family to build a career first is getting easier for some women.

As CBS 2's Carolyn Gusoff reported, they're using a backup plan to delay motherhood, and are learning all about it in a unique New York setting.

The champagne was flowing, and so was the conversation, as 100 people gathered recently in a SoHo hotel.

So what was missing at this party? Men!

The event was for women bonding over beating the biological clock.

"I have a boyfriend, but no plan to set out a family yet," attendee Reema Salvia said.

"I have a career right now, and I want to have freedom to have options," Taba Kashanian said.

"I'm 29 years old, and I'm not thinking of having kids in the future, so I guess this is something to ensure that I'll be able to have one when I do decide to have one," Mari Santocildez said.

The event is where Gusoff found 28-year-old Nadine Carrasco, a medical coordinator with no current boyfriend and not even close to thinking about starting a family.

"I'm very young. But I'm single right now, there are no prospective candidates, so I'm trying to think for my future. I figure it's a good backup plan," she said.

Carrasco is part of a new generation of women who are younger than ever and considering egg freezing to take the rush out of finding Mr. Right. They're gathering at events like the one in SoHo called, "Let's Chill," by EggBanxx, a fertility company trying to attract younger women by throwing egg freezing "parties."

"You're not sitting in a clinic with sterile white walls, listening to a physician say 'Hey, you better freeze your eggs, you're getting on up there.' You have options,. Let's make this fun," EggBanxx Sales and Marketing Manager Leahjane Lavin said. "It's like a rain check, an insurance plan. I literally would hear that biological clock in my head -- click, click -- click, every month."

But how does it work?

As Gusoff reported, several eggs are removed in a 20-minute outpatient procedure, then flash frozen with liquid nitrogen at 196 degrees below zero. New fast-freezing technology increases the odds of the eggs living longer so young women can put off motherhood for more than a decade and choose when to thaw and fertilize.

doctor freezing eggs
(Credit: CBS 2)

Doctors at Neway Fertility, a clinic where eggs are retrieved and stored, say the younger the eggs, the healthier they are.

"If you have eggs frozen at a younger age, it gives you that dream of having a child with the man you have chosen later on in life," Clinic Director Dr. Janelle Luk said.

It's information that's served up with cocktails and popcorn that makes the egg freezing decision seem more like joining a sorority than taking a leap into a new fertility frontier.

"You see women your age in here and feel like you belong," one woman said.

"It's totally like clubbing. The music is missing," another added.

Most women at the event told CBS 2 they haven't decided if they'll freeze their eggs, but they made new friends and no longer think time is the enemy.

The national average cost of egg freezing is $13,000, but EggBanxx negotiates discounts with fertility clinics.

Women who decide not to sure their eggs can have them discarded or donated.

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