Lianne Wing-Martins, at 29, became interested in egg freezing after being influenced by social media and celebrity endorsements. In April 2025, she consulted a private clinic in Toronto, where she felt pressured to proceed with the $9,000 procedure, excluding medication and storage costs. While egg freezing has been legal in Canada for personal reasons since 2012, data shows that only 70 of the 4.1 million babies born in Canada from 2013 to 2023 were conceived from frozen eggs. The Investigative Journalism Bureau’s eight-month investigation uncovered aggressive marketing practices, emotional manipulation, and misleading claims by fertility clinics. With minimal government oversight, the egg-freezing industry has expanded significantly, yet many women may never use the eggs they pay to freeze, contributing to concerns about financial exploitation and the integrity of the industry.
Why It Matters
The egg-freezing industry in Canada has grown significantly, with a reported doubling of procedures from 2020 to 2024. Despite this, only about 25% of embryos created from frozen eggs resulted in live births between 2013 and 2023. The lack of stringent regulation means that many clinics can make misleading claims about the effectiveness of egg freezing, affecting women’s reproductive choices. Since 2012, when personal egg freezing became legal, financial pressures and emotional appeals have raised concerns regarding the exploitation of women’s reproductive anxieties.
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