I flew to Barcelona to freeze my eggs for under $4,500. Being alone for the hard parts was the price I didn't calculate.
A woman shares her personal experience of traveling to Barcelona to freeze her eggs at a significantly lower cost than in the United States. While the financial savings were substantial, she highlights the emotional challenges of undergoing the medical procedure alone in a foreign country.
Why it matters
It highlights the growing trend of medical tourism for fertility treatments and the hidden emotional costs associated with seeking affordable healthcare abroad.
The author flew to Spain to freeze her eggs. Courtesy of the author I traveled to Barcelona a week after my 40th birthday to freeze my eggs. I saw the procedure as a way to give my future self more reproductive options. I ultimately froze eight eggs and plan to undergo another round. It was a week after my 40th birthday, September 2025. I was celebrating by freezing my eggs in Barcelona, where the price could be less than a year's worth of Botox in New York. I told myself it would be a vacation: tapas, sunbathing, a few glasses of Rioja, and the opportunity for future Jennys to chill in a Spanish freezer. Ticking off the beginning of my 40s, I was buying time.
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