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Women Learn About New Family Planning Option At 'Egg Freezing Party'

BOSTON (CBS) - There is a whole new kind of party for women who eventually want to have babies. It's called an egg freezing party, designed to promote and inform women about this relatively new option in family planning.

EggBanxx, a national company that partners with local fertility clinics, hosted the party at the Liberty Hotel in Boston. More than 50 women shared drinks and got a chance to talk to fertility doctors about the possibility of freezing their eggs, which has only been considered non-experimental for about three years now.

"When you freeze an egg it really is like we are pressing pause," says Dr. Beth Plante of Fertility Centers of New England. "You freeze it when the woman is at 32 and when she comes back at age 40 it's sort of like she is using the egg from a 32 year old," Dr. Plante adds.

"We talk about living with no regrets," says Gina Bartasi, CEO of EggBanxx, "And freezing your eggs is an option that provides a tremendous amount of flexibility so that you can live your life with no regrets."

While it's great to plan, it comes at a cost. Egg freezing typically runs around $10,000, not including monthly storage fees, and none of it is covered by insurance.

Egg freezing is ideal for women younger than 35, but there is no official age limit.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine does not recommend egg freezing for healthy women who simply want to put off having children but should be reserved for women with medical reasons, like those undergoing cancer treatments.

The idea is becoming more main-stream. Apple Inc. and Facebook recently made headlines for offering to cover egg freezing for its women employees.

There is no guarantee that a woman who freezes her eggs will be able to get pregnant later in life. At this point, the success rate of using frozen eggs to get pregnant appears to be about the same as with fresh eggs. However, information is limited because the procedure is still relatively new. So while more women are now freezing their eggs most have not yet tried to get pregnant with them yet.

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