{"id":57005,"date":"2012-05-15T18:20:43","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T22:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=57005"},"modified":"2012-05-15T18:22:27","modified_gmt":"2012-05-15T22:22:27","slug":"how-much-is-that-test-tube-in-the-freezer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/fe-911-2\/how-much-is-that-test-tube-in-the-freezer\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much is that Test Tube in the Freezer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been somewhat in absentia<\/em> here at Planet Waves, having had my surrogate come and speak on my behalf<\/a> while I have had a very busy past few weeks. I’ve been working with my theater company on developing our new show — a collaboration with our local Planned Parenthood organization. I’ve literally not only had my uterus speak for me, I’ve been inundated with facts, figures and anecdotes on the full spectrum of female reproductive health issues.<\/p>\n

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So I found it synchronistic while perusing Facebook today to find a New York Times article<\/em> on parents providing financial assistance to their daughters so that they could afford the expensive process to freeze their eggs<\/a> while the donor is still young for future fertilization.\u00a0While reading, it took me a minute to figure out this wasn’t science fiction, but fact.\u00a0What time is it?<\/p>\n

I keep asking the question because we seem to be at a very odd, multi-dimensional relationship with time: we’re fighting to make it slow down, stand still, yet live our lives and take in bytes of information and experiences at a rate a hundred times faster than our parents, and maybe a thousand times faster than our grandparents. And what are we are taking in while trying to slow or supersede the inevitable decay of time?<\/p>\n

The reason\u00a0I ask is because the women interviewed in the story seem relieved by the removal of the biological alarm clock that so pressured them to find a suitable mate to father children. Their parents were equally, if not more so thrilled that they aided their prospects for healthier grandchildren. Here is an excerpt from the article:<\/p>\n

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Gloria Hayes, who lives in Darien, Conn., bit her tongue for months after hearing about egg freezing, hoping that her daughter Jennifer, a restaurateur in Telluride, Colo., would broach the topic herself.<\/p>\n

“I just didn\u2019t feel right approaching her about it, because it\u2019s almost a criticism in a way \u2014 ‘You\u2019re getting old’,” Mrs. Hayes said. When Jennifer finally floated the idea, “I was thrilled,” Mrs. Hayes said. “I thought this could just take a lot of the stress off her.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These are amazing technological times we live in. But this to me is another of what Eric describes as “Atlantean moments,” where our technological advancement is far outstripping our capacity to comprehend its ramifications on our minds, bodies and souls.\u00a0We are a society struggling to rear the children we now have well enough to succeed in a world that is becoming more closed to them as time goes on.<\/p>\n

And let’s talk about stress. We haven’t yet fully questioned why we apply such tremendous pressure on women to become mothers, let alone mothers under wedlock. I am concerned about devaluing women who choose to bypass and outlive their reproductive years without children — who are they in a society that is predicated on a culture centered on the ‘married with family’ ideal?<\/p>\n

This one is for all of us to discuss. See you in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been somewhat in absentia here at Planet Waves, having had my surrogate come and speak on my behalf while I have had a very busy past few weeks. I’ve been working with my theater company on developing our new show — a collaboration with our local Planned Parenthood organization. I’ve literally not only … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1740],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}