Julie Steinberg for the WSJ writes: Diane Kaplan knows she wants to be a mother one day.
But the 36-year-old software-company development director isn't quite ready yet. She hasn't found the right person to settle down with, and she doesn't want her biological clock to dictate when she has to bear children.
So, this past April, the Cambridge, Mass., resident froze her eggs, undergoing a procedure to have them "harvested" from her body and stored until she decides to have a baby, when the eggs will be fertilized and reinserted.
"This was a decision to buy time," Ms. Kaplan says.
Ms. Kaplan may have given herself a reprieve, but she also found herself with a hefty bill. Egg freezing—one of many fertility treatments increasingly being used—is costly, totaling up to tens of thousands of dollars, and it raises a host of other issues.
Once an experimental venture, egg freezing has become more popular in the past few years as success rates have soared, doctors say. Now more women in their 30s and early 40s—and even in their 20s—are saving for the procedure, say financial planners and lawyers.
Not only are they planning for the surgery, but also for the costs of storage and implantation. That is prompting some women to set up separate savings accounts—or ask their parents for help.
They also are considering estate planning for the eggs, a complicated area of law that differs from state to state.
Holly Thomas, a certified financial planner in Tampa, Fla., had her first client come to her in May to add "freezing her eggs" to her list of financial goals.
"I had to think for a minute," Ms. Thomas says. "I usually see people who want a boat or a second home in the mountains."
As women age, the quality of their eggs deteriorates, making it harder to get pregnant and have children without birth defects. Freezing their eggs when they are younger allows women to focus on careers or finding a mate while sticking to a timeline of their own choosing.
There have been more than 2,000 babies born from frozen eggs, doctors say, and experts expect that number to rise substantially in coming years.
There are no data on how many women have frozen their eggs, but experts say the number is increasing. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine last October lifted the "experimental" designation for the procedure.
At the New York University Fertility Center, the number of egg retrievals has increased steadily since 2004, when the clinic first began harvesting eggs, says Jamie Grifo, the facility's program director.
Dr. Grifo, who has given presentations on fertility at companies like J.P. Morgan Chase JPM -0.57% and Goldman Sachs Group, GS -0.44% says he is seeing more patients in their 30s compared with five years ago, when he treated women in their 40s. But the practice isn't restricted to older women.
Natalie Aguilar, a recent graduate of the University of Miami, is 22 and already thinking about freezing her eggs at age 26 or 27.
"I feel like my life right now is very focused on my career," says Ms. Aguilar, who currently is applying to medical school. "I want to ensure I can have a child, which isn't something I'll be able to get to until my mid-30s."
For each treatment cycle, medications can range between $2,000 and $5,000; the surgery between $3,000 and $7,000; thawing and fertilization between $1,000 and $2,000; the implantation process between $3,000 and $5,000; and annual storage costs from $100 to $1,000, says Mitchell Rosen, the director of the Fertility Preservation Center at the University of California, San Francisco.
Some women may need to undergo more than one treatment cycle to yield enough usable eggs. Some clinics offer discounts on additional cycles.
Insurance rarely covers the procedure if it is elective, but some insurance companies might cover medication costs.
Suzanne Greenberg, a 43-year-old executive assistant at a technology startup in San Francisco, thought she and her parents had budgeted enough to pay for two cycles to freeze her eggs this year. But additional medications ended up costing her more than she had anticipated.
Her insurance didn't cover any of the treatment, so her family paid $25,000 out of pocket.
If you pay for the procedure yourself, you can deduct for medical expenses on your tax return only if you have infertility issues and the storage of the eggs is temporary, the amount exceeds 10% of your adjusted gross income and you itemize your deductions, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
Two riskier options for those who are otherwise strapped: borrowing against a 401(k) or tapping a Roth individual retirement account, says Jennifer Adams, a certified financial planner in Waltham, Mass. If your employer allows it, you can arrange a loan of 50% of the value of your 401(k), up to $50,000. The loan must be repaid within five years.
Some fertility clinics work with companies to provide financing for the procedure, though the loans can have high interest rates.
Another option: Parents can each make annual tax-exempt gifts of as much as $14,000. "Prospective grandparents want to feel part of the process," says Manisha Thakor, CEO of MoneyZen Wealth Management in Sante Fe, N.M.
Alternatively, family members can pay fertility bills directly without incurring gift taxes, says Brian Greenberg, a certified public accountant in Marlton, N.J., if the daughter is freezing her eggs to overcome infertility issues and the storage of the eggs is temporary.
Carole Bass, a partner in the trusts and estates practice at Moses & Singer in New York, recommends setting up a 529 college-savings plan for your potential progeny. But because those plans require a named beneficiary, you will have to designate someone else until your child is born.
There are no federal guidelines concerning the inheritance status of frozen eggs, says Katherine Dean, managing director for wealth planning at Wells Fargo WFC +0.02%Private Bank. If you—or your parents—want your potential children to be included in your estate plan, consult attorneys who can know the law in your state.
Some states limit how long the estate can remain open after the mother's or grandparents' death, says Kris Knaplund, a professor at the Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, Calif. In other words, there is a limit to how many years a mother might have before she has to bear the child so it receives distributions from the grandparents' estate.
To make your intentions clear, you should include a section in your will or trusts that covers beneficiaries conceived in the future, says Cara Koss, a trust and estates lawyer at Arnold & Porter in Washington.
A Supreme Court case decided in May 2012 found that children born after their parent had died couldn't qualify for Social Security survivor benefits without demonstrating they would be eligible to inherit under state law.
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