Women Who Travel Podcast: I Went to Barcelona to Freeze My Eggs

09.08.2024 - 16:10 / cntraveler.com

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Freezing your eggs can be logistically challenging—and costly—here in the United States, which is why some women are turning their sights overseas. Lale chats with Los Angeles-based Esther Yu McElroy about her own fertility journey, one that took her all the way to Barcelona with a stop in London along the way.

Lale Arikoglu: Hi, there. I'm Lale Arikoglu with a Women Who Travel story about a very personal journey for those who may be considering whether to have a child, and how to do it.

Esther Yu McElroy: I didn't know if due to age or my own physical capabilities, if I would have to repeat the process again. I didn't know if I would have a lower count, and in order to give myself a viable chance at starting a family, if I would need to go back and spend the money again to do this. I've heard of so many horror stories of people just mortgaging their houses, refinancing, going broke.

LA: I'm talking to Los Angeles based Esther Yu McElroy, who researched several international fertility clinics before scheduling an appointment in another country to freeze her eggs. But before we embark on her roller coaster of experiences, a little aside, because when we started recording, I could actually hear her kitten in the background.

EM: Give me one second. Let me get her. I thought I locked everyone away. I have a zoo, so I locked everyone in the bathroom. One second. I'll get her. Jasmine. Alrighty, that should be good for now.

LA: We've had many animals make cameos.

EM: Well, I have a complete zoo, so we have way too many. We have 10 cats.

LA: Oh, my god, amazing.

EM: At one, we had four dogs, and now we have two dogs. So I took some time this morning to put the zoo away, but I lost. I missed one I guess.

LA: I mean, one out of 12 is pretty good going.

EM: Took some time and a lot of canned food.

LA: Esther is used to moving around. She was born on a US air base in Germany where her father was stationed, and shortly after that went to live in Taiwan where her mum is from. A few years later, they settled in LA. Do you remember much of Germany or Taiwan, or were you too tiny?

EM: I was too tiny for Germany, although I do get asked quite often if I speak German because it's on my passport. Taiwan, I've gone back almost every other year, so that is pretty familiar, but I don't remember that time.

LA: And then LA ever since.

EM: Well, and then I lived in China for about eight years right after uni, and then I moved back here about nine years ago.

LA: When your story passed over our metaphorical, and sometimes real-life desks, in the Condé Nast Traveler and Women Who Travel studio, it really