Building a career in the San Francisco Bay Area often means your professional timeline doesn’t align with your biology. You have product roadmaps and funding rounds to manage, and stepping away to start a family right now might not be the right move.
For many women in tech, egg freezing is the strategic answer. It allows you to preserve your future family options without hitting pause on your career. This guide covers the logistics, the costs, and the egg freezing process for busy professionals in the Bay Area.
Why More Women in Tech Are Choosing Fertility Preservation
In a culture that demands your full attention during your peak reproductive years, freezing your eggs offers a practical way to manage your reproductive health and maintain control over your future.
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Career vs. Biology
In San Francisco and the South Bay, the pressure to “sprint” in your 20s and 30s is intense. Recent data reveals that women in tech are 1.6 times more likely to face layoffs than men, and 66% report lacking clear career advancement paths. Furthermore, 57% of women in the sector plan to leave their jobs within two years, often citing poor work/life balance.
Faced with these headwinds, many women delay family milestones to secure their professional footing first. Consequently, the average age of first-time mothers here is higher than the national average. Fertility preservation allows you to separate your biological clock from your career clock, ensuring that professional instability doesn’t dictate your personal timeline.
Buying Time and Options
We encourage patients to view frozen eggs as a tool for autonomy. With women currently holding only about 30% of leadership roles in major tech companies, reaching seniority and financial stability can take longer than expected. Freezing your eggs isn’t a guarantee of a successful pregnancy later, but it gives you the best chance to use your own, high-quality eggs when you are finally ready for family-building. It’s a strategic move to ensure your reproductive health options remain open, regardless of how long your climb to the top takes.
Why the Bay Area is a Hub for Egg Freezing
You’re in one of the best places in the world for this procedure. San Francisco is a global center for reproductive medicine, giving you access to world-class fertility specialists and research.
- Tech-forward care: Fertility clinics here understand their patient base. At RMA, we use digital tools like our Artemis patient portal to give you direct access to your care team and instructions.
- Progressive benefits: Many Bay Area tech companies, including Meta, Google, and Salesforce, treat fertility treatments (including surrogacy and LGBTQ family-building support) as a standard health benefit. Because of this, insurance coverage for egg freezing is far more common here than in other parts of the country, giving employees real financial support for their reproductive choices.
Where to Freeze Your Eggs: Choosing a Clinic
When you are choosing a fertility center, logistics matter. You need a location that fits into your commute, whether you’re in the city or the South Bay.
RMA San Francisco (SoMa)
Our San Francisco Bay Area clinic is at 150 Spear Street. Located steps from the Ferry Building and Embarcadero BART, this location houses our state-of-the-art embryology lab. This is where your egg retrieval and advanced procedures like intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) take place.
Silicon Valley & Palo Alto
For those in the South Bay, our office at 1900 University Ave in East Palo Alto is designed for you. You can handle your initial consultation, blood work, and monitoring appointments here, keeping you close to work in Menlo Park or Mountain View.
The East Bay Option
We also serve the East Bay (including Oakland and Walnut Creek) with our Danville clinic. It’s ideal for handling your daily monitoring appointments close to home before heading to work.
The Egg Freezing Process: A Schedule That Works for You
The number one question we get is about time commitment. Egg freezing does require a series of appointments, but we design the egg freezing cycle to minimize disruption.
- Early morning monitoring: We offer early monitoring appointments starting at 7 a.m. so you can get your ultrasound and be at your desk before your morning standup.
- Telehealth first: We offer virtual consultations for new patient appointments. Your strategy session can take place in your living room or office, saving you a trip.
- A short timeline: The stimulation phase (taking medication to grow your follicles) typically lasts 10-12 days. During this time, you’ll come in for monitoring five to seven times. The egg retrieval itself is a quick, outpatient procedure done under light sedation.
The Cost of Egg Freezing and Insurance Coverage
Before you worry about pricing, check your benefits. The Bay Area tech sector offers some of the most comprehensive fertility treatment coverage in the country.
We are in-network with the specific benefit plans common in tech, including Progyny, Carrot Fertility, and Maven. If you have one of these, a huge chunk of the cost might be covered. If you don’t, we give you the numbers upfront and can connect you with lenders to help handle the pricing.
What to Expect
“It wasn’t as disruptive as I thought.” Many patients worry about the hormones. While every body is different, most women continue their normal work routines during ovarian stimulation. You might feel some bloating as your ovaries respond and the number of eggs grows, but most patients are back to work the day after their retrieval.
“I felt like I bought myself freedom.” Once your mature eggs are retrieved and undergo vitrification (flash-freezing), they’re stored safely until thawing when you need them. For many women, knowing they have frozen eggs in storage reduces the anxiety around dating and timelines, allowing them to focus on their current goals with a clearer head.
Ready to Plan Your Future?
You optimize every other part of your life; your reproductive health should be no different. At RMA Northern California, we combine high-quality science with the logistical flexibility that busy professionals require.
Whether you’re looking into egg freezing, in vitro fertilization (IVF), or just want fertility testing to check your ovarian reserve, we’re here to help.
Schedule an appointment with our San Francisco or Silicon Valley team today. Call us at 866-762-3140 to get started.
