As marriage and childbearing are increasingly being postponed, factors such as difficulty finding a suitable partner, economic hardship and migration are leading some women to defer motherhood until later in life.
Doctors and fertility specialists say the number of women in Iran opting to freeze their eggs is rising. The procedure, once used mainly for medical reasons — particularly among women undergoing cancer treatment — is becoming more common.
Mina, 37, is one of the women who has recently decided to freeze her eggs. She told Euronews: “So far, I haven’t found anyone with whom I could have a stable relationship. It may take several years to meet someone, and I don’t want to lose time in the meantime.”
She says the reaction from people around her — particularly those who learned of her decision through one of her posts on X — was largely positive. For many of Mina’s friends, the idea of freezing her eggs was not an issue. But some, pointing to the circumstances in Iran, asked her: “Are you crazy? You want to have a child in conditions like these?”
For single women, egg freezing is entangled with the question of virginity
For single women, however, egg freezing can still become entangled with questions of virginity and scrutiny of their private lives.
“When I went to see a gynaecologist, a woman who was there for her second child asked me, as soon as she realised I was single, ‘You’re not a virgin, are you?’” Mina says. “I found it very strange. But I’ve accepted that part of society still thinks this way.”
For some single women, particularly for religious reasons or because they live in more traditional communities, virginity remains an important concern.
Dr Marzieh Sanoui Farimani, a former faculty member at Hamadan University of Medical Sciences and head of the Omid Fertility Centre in Hamadan, told Euronews that some single women in Iran worry that the procedure could damage the hymen.
“There is a possibility of that happening,” she said. “We usually advise these women to go to the forensic medicine organisation one or two days before the egg retrieval and obtain a certificate.”
The high cost of egg retrieval — and expenses that do not end there
The cost of egg freezing has risen sharply in recent years. When Mina sought the procedure, she was told that egg retrieval would cost about 80 million tomans (€502), which is equivalent to two months’ wages in Iran, at a private hospital and around 40 million tomans (€251) at a public hospital.
But, she says, that was only the beginning.
“If the injections are bought at the full price, they can cost 70 to 80 million tomans (€439.3 to €502). With insurance, it comes down to around 7 or 8 million (€43.93 or €50.20),” she says.
Nasrin decided to freeze her eggs at 38, following a suggestion from her family. In addition to medication, she says, doctors’ appointments, tests, an electrocardiogram and multiple ultrasound scans added to the cost.
“It took about six months from the time I decided to do it until I actually underwent the procedure,” Nasrin told Euronews. “During that period, prices almost doubled.”
Finding the medication was not always easy either.
“Even though the drugs were Iranian-made, they were not readily available,” she says. “Every time, I would search several pharmacies, while my sister would simultaneously check others so that we could find everything we needed.”
The medication has to be injected at specific times, and, according to Nasrin, missing the prescribed timing could affect the outcome.
Nasrin froze her eggs in 2022. She says the annual storage fee was 600,000 tomans (€3.77) in the first year; it has since risen to 3.2 million (€20.08).
Insurance coverage for single women: A policy that has yet to be implemented
As the average age of marriage has risen, and amid government efforts to boost the birth rate, Iran’s parliament approved a measure in November 2023 allowing single women over 30 to receive basic health insurance coverage for egg freezing.
But the policy does not appear to have been fully implemented.
“Insurance companies generally do not cover the cost of egg freezing unless there is a medical indication,” Dr Farimani says. This includes cases in which a woman has cancer or certain autoimmune diseases and must take medication that could damage her fertility.
The latest report by Iran’s Population Monitoring Centre points to a large number of single people of family-forming age. Combined with a sharp decline in registered marriages and a continuing fall in births, the figures are raising fresh concerns about the country’s demographic future.
Millions of single men and women — and many women freeze their eggs too late
Iran has 7.3 million unmarried men aged between 20 and 54, and 6.9 million unmarried women aged between 15 and 49.
Dr Farimani says most women seek to freeze their eggs after the age of 35, and sometimes close to 40.
“At this age, the chances of success are lower,” she told Euronews. “Of course, things have improved compared with the past, and as public awareness has increased, women are coming in at younger ages to freeze their eggs.”
She added that delaying childbearing could contribute to the rising prevalence of endometriosis among young women, a condition that can be an important factor in diminished ovarian reserve and infertility.
Polycystic ovary syndrome is also very common among girls and young women in Iran, she said.
Egg freezing among married women: from marital conflict to economic hardship
For some married women, marital tensions and uncertainty about the future are reasons to postpone having children.
“I was worried that our disagreements might leave the child alone in the future, or that our arguments could harm them,” Pooneh told Euronews. “At the same time, I didn’t want to reach a point where my disagreements with my husband became so severe that I would be forced to stay in a marriage I no longer wanted because of the child.”
The war and the cost of raising a child also influenced her decision.
“I really didn’t want my child to be born into the psychological pressures of war, or to be financially constrained and unable to afford what they needed,” she said.
Pooneh says she wanted to make her life as stable as possible before becoming a mother.
“I wanted to wait until I had more stable circumstances before thinking about having a child and providing them with a decent life,” she said. “I didn’t want to give up things because of the child and then regret it later, thinking I had no choice.”
Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, secretary of Iran’s National Population Headquarters, recently said the country’s birth rate continues to decline. According to her, around 892,000 births were registered in 2025, down 9% on the previous year. The decline continued during the first four months of this year, with births down 6.9% compared with the same period last year.
She also cited a national survey in which 75% of young people identified economic conditions as the most important factor influencing their decision to have children.
Egg freezing is a difficult route — and it offers no guarantee of pregnancy
The procedure itself can be demanding. For Nasrin, the most difficult part was taking hormonal medication.
“I felt as though all the irritability and nervousness I experienced during my period had become ten times worse,” she said. “I was extremely irritable.”
Yet Nasrin stresses that freezing her eggs was not a guarantee that she would one day become a mother.
“There is no certainty,” she said. “I might marry the right person and decide to use these eggs, only for the egg not to develop into an embryo when fertilisation is attempted.”
Farimani says there is no fixed limit on how long frozen eggs can be stored, although 10 to 15 years is a period often cited. She stressed that women can use their own eggs until the age of 49.
Single women must pay out of pocket for essential health tests
Mina says there is little information available about egg freezing, and women are often reluctant to share their experiences.
“I searched a lot, but I couldn’t find many personal accounts,” she said. “Hearing about other people’s experiences can reduce your stress. But I think that because of the shame and judgement surrounding the subject, many people prefer not to talk about it.”
“If you’re single, the judgement is greater. And if you’re married, people may become curious about what is wrong with you that you haven’t had a child.”
Mina cites her own experience with HPV testing and Pap smears as an example of the need for greater awareness of women’s health.
She says she first considered getting tested in 2018 after seeing a post by a friend on Instagram. But when she went for the tests, she was told that her insurance would not cover them because she was single.
“Each test cost around 600,000 tomans (€3.77), and altogether I paid more than two million tomans (€12.55) at the laboratory,” she said.
She says the costs have risen since then, while HPV has become more widespread. In the absence of a nationwide HPV vaccination programme, she believes raising awareness about the virus is even more important.
HPV is a common virus transmitted primarily through sexual contact. Some strains can increase the risk of cervical cancer. HPV vaccination can prevent infection with many high-risk strains of the virus, while a Pap smear screens for cellular changes in the cervix and can help detect precancerous abnormalities at an early stage.
