Looking overseas
In response to the impasse in China, a growing number of women are heading overseas to have their eggs frozen.
Data from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology shows that the number who have the procedure overseas rose from 475 to 8,000 between 2009 and 2015.
In April last year, Ctrip, the country's largest online travel agency, began offering a seven-day egg-freezing trip to the United States. The package, which cost 218,888 yuan ($34,617), included blood tests, ultrasound examinations, extraction and a year of storage and preservation at a medical facility.
Agencies that introduce single women and couples to fertility centers in the U.S. have reported a growing interest in the procedure.
"Demand for egg freezing has risen substantially in recent years," said Gu Siliang, co-founder of Joybaby, an agency in Shanghai, which fielded 1,000 inquiries last year, and arranged for 500 women to undergo the procedure.
Gu said most of her customers work in the financial and investment sectors, so they can easily afford the cost.
Lin Haifan, a stem cell expert and professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale University, said, "The attitude of women in the U.S. towards egg freezing is very similar.
"They want to strike a balance between their family life and their careers, so if a conflict arises, they postpone their plans to have a baby. Meanwhile they are concerned that if they wait too long they won't be able to have a baby, so they choose to freeze their eggs while they are still relatively young."
U.S. clinics are gearing up for the rise in demand, with 33 of the 51 assisted reproductive clinics in California providing customized services for Chinese patients, including Chinese-speaking staff members along with documents and websites in Mandarin.
Potential risks
In addition to the legal dilemma in China, some experts have warned about potential health risks related to egg extraction, freezing and storage, and potentially harmful side effects.
Yu Qi, who has worked in the field for 30 years, said he will only perform the procedure if it is medically necessary, because the limited number of eggs produced during each ovulation cycle can potentially be harmful.
"We retrieve the eggs when the patients' estrogen levels are quite high, usually the day before peak ovulation. However, those high estrogen levels may raise the permeability of blood vessels, which could cause the blood to coagulate, and, in the worst-case scenario, produce dangerous blood clots," he said.
Moreover, usually only 50 percent of the eggs that are extracted and frozen can be used after thawing, and they are difficult to fertilize, he added.
Yu stressed that the eggs have a limited active period, and strongly advised women 35 and older not to undergo the procedure. "The quality of the eggs obtained from women older than 40 is pretty bad, and there is a high probability of birth defects if the eggs are harvested from women ages 36 and older."
Social concerns
On December 27, in response to calls from Dai Hairong, a deputy with the National People's Congress, to lift the restrictions on access to reproductive technology, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said the reproductive rights of single women did not accord with traditional rights and morals.
However, the commission, which was disbanded in March, pledged that its successor, the National Health Commission, would maintain research into technology related to egg freezing and would conduct feasibility studies into its clinical use.
Lu, the Peking University professor, argued that traditional Chinese culture does not accept single mothers or babies born outside of marriage.
"Supervision could be difficult when related to ethical issues," he said. "Unregulated freezing might lead to egg trading and surrogacy."
Zhai Xiaomei, a professor of life ethics at Peking Union Medical College, focused on the child's birth and development. She said the use of assisted reproductive technology will result in parents being able to choose when their children are born, thus overturning traditional ideas of natural childbirth.
"Women can choose to have their eggs frozen, but is that in the child's best interests, and is it fair to allow children to grow up in one-parent families, when that sort of background is not normal in China?" she said.
She was also concerned about the growth of social inequality if the use of the technology became commonplace and only wealthy people could afford the procedure.
"After all, it is different from the process of natural fertility," she said.
Zhan said she fully understands the potential risks that egg-freezing technology may bring, but is determined to continue her fight to guarantee access to the procedure.
"I have five years to promote and protect the legalization of the rights of single women to have their eggs frozen for later use. Even though I can't guarantee success within that time scale, I remain hopeful and will continue to strive for the rights laid down by the law in Jilin," she said.
