I traveled to London to freeze my eggs after I was shamed for being childless. This is why I used a fertility tourism startup to plan my trip and get a vacation out of it.
Rika Tajima.
- An increasing number of women are choosing to undergo IVF and egg freezing treatments abroad.
- Many also want to make a holiday out of it, and new startup Milvia wants to enable this trend.
- Insider spoke to 34-year-old Rika Tajima about her experience using Milvia to freeze her eggs in London.
This as-told-to features Rika Tajima, a 34-year-old woman from Japan who works at a startup. She has detailed her journey using Milvia to go abroad to London, where she froze her eggs. This account has been edited for clarity.
I've had a relative call me worthless, even though I have tried really hard with my academics or work — all because I don't have a child. And that really bothered me.
I'm 34 now and have spent the bulk of my life really focused on studying and my career, making it difficult to balance my work and personal life.
My gynecologist, who is the same age as me, told me it was a good time to consider egg freezing and I decided to give it a go. But I felt guilty because I was going to be spending money and time that I wouldn't have had to spend if I just had a child before.
But I wanted to make more choices for myself in the future — and I don't know if I'll have a child, but I wanted to give myself that leeway.
I looked up multiple egg-freezing hospitals in Japan and some of them also worked for single women, not just couples. I went to one, but it felt like were treating me like a customer rather than a patient, something that made me feel uncomfortable.
Then, late last year, I attended the SkyDeck accelerator program for startup founders in Berkeley. It was there I met Abhi Ghavalkar, the founder of a startup called Milvia, which aimed to dramatically improve the egg-freezing process.
Milvia calls itself the Airbnb of fertility tourism. It books trips, including flights and accommodation, for patients who want to undergo egg freezing and IVF abroad. It has partnerships with clinics in London so patients don't have the hassle of finding a doctor themselves.
On average, egg freezing in the US can cost $11,000 for an initial treatment, excluding medication and monthly storage costs; the total process, including storage costs, usually hits $30,000 to $40,000. In the UK, treatment costs around $4000 on average, excluding monthly storage costs — but can stretch up to $10,000 if including storage, medication, and thawing costs.
It was then I thought: "Why not?"
I thought I could make this into a positive experience — and get that negative connotation about egg freezing out of my head.
Making a vacation out of my journey
London appealed to me from a tourism point of view but also because egg-freezing options are more researched and well-established than in Japan.
Before coming to the UK, I had consultations with Milvia, and paid them to book my Airbnb, flights, as well as a concierge service. I chose one on the cheaper end, in West London, near a school. I actually had a fridge in my room as well, which was really helpful because I needed to store some of my medication there. Milvia has partnered with clinics in the UK, so that took the hassle out of the process of researching them.
Ahead of my trip, I had some medications prescribed to me, and I took those twice daily in the morning and evening. On my second day in London, I had my first visit to the hospital for a baseline scan. The next day, I started self-injecting in the stomach. Five days later, I went to the hospital for a second scan. They said that I could start my additional medication. Now I was self-injecting in my stomach once in the morning, and once in the evening. I also went to the hospital the following weekend as well.
Depending on how I was feeling in the morning, I used to talk to Akash Ghavalkar, the COO of Milvia, about how I'd like to spend my day. Sometimes I would go to a coworking space to focus on my work, but if I wanted to sightsee. Milvia would set up the visits and help me with booking train tickets and tour guides.
I spent about half my time working and half my time as a tourist.
Rika Tajima.
Milvia also booked my plane, which was a direct flight, but the ticket was flexible because I may have needed to stay longer if my eggs weren't ready for retrieval by the scheduled date.
I felt anxious before retrieving my eggs — but having support around me helped
In Japan, couples that are struggling to conceive can get public health insurance to subsidize up to 70% of their fertility treatments such as IVF. However, if you're single, there aren't as many coverage options for egg-freezing costs across the whole country.
The nurse in the UK taught me how to inject myself with medication, and showed me some videos. I was fiddling around and it took me around 30 minutes on the first try. It was still a bit scary after that.
My egg retrieval process went as scheduled. I took all my medication. The Milvia staff were there as I was the first patient on their program, so that helped my anxiety, which I think was caused by my hormones. All of a sudden I was scared about whether it would work out.
The process took under an hour overall, and then I went back to my accommodation to sleep. I flew back to Japan on the Saturday, and in the days between that, I was taking walks and relaxing.
When I came back to Japan, I noticed that people think of me as someone who is more serious about their life decisions. My friends asked me how it was and they're considering egg freezing more seriously. My parents were happy to hear that it went well. My 89-year-old grandpa liked the fact that I traveled to London, it made it more of a celebratory event.
But sometimes, it felt a bit lonely. I'm interested in the community aspect that Milvia can provide.
When I had my first self-injection in London, it would have been nice to have a nurse with me. Speaking to friends during my mood swings would have been helpful.
For me, it was more expensive than it would have been if I had frozen my eggs in Japan. But we have a lot of natural disasters in Japan, and I also travel a lot for work. So I thought storing the eggs overseas would be a nice option.
Overall, the procedures and medicine cost around $6000, the accommodation and Milvia service fee was $3000, and flights were $2000.
The expenses for the holiday were a bit of a reach for me — but it was worth it because it made for a positive and memorable experience.
Are you interested in sharing your experience with fertility technology, or traveling abroad to freeze your eggs or undergo IVF? Contact this reporter at rkanetkar@insider.com.
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