New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed to her followers — and the world — that she was freezing her eggs, sharing a live video on her Instagram story during which she administered a hormone injection to herself ahead of a scheduled Sunday television appearance.
“Usually, I keep my private life quite private, but I have made the decision to start freezing my eggs,” Ocasio-Cortez said in the Saturday night live stream, “and I want to share that with anyone who is — and I want to share this because I was weighing it for a very long time, and I think that, you know, I was saving for it for a very long time, and there just isn’t a ton out there, I feel, and sometimes it can feel very daunting.”
The Democratic congresswoman discussed the preparation involved in the medical procedure and noted that taking her first injection “wasn’t so bad.” She mentioned that she would be administering additional doses in the green room before appearing on ABC’s This Week.
“As women in general, we are not taught about our bodies, we are not prepared for our own lives, whether that is in puberty, whether that is in pregnancy, whether that is in perimenopause, menopause, whether that is in so many different aspects of our lives,” she said.
Reflecting on her public profile and reproductive choices, Ocasio-Cortez explained her rationale for sharing the experience publicly despite the personal nature of the procedure.
“In the political context that we’re in, in an administration that is dedicated to politicizing women’s bodies and taking our choices away from us and punishing us around decisions to be pregnant or not be pregnant — and, frankly, this administration has made pregnancy more dangerous than probably at any point in the last 30 plus years — we’re gonna take our power back,” she said.
She noted that navigating adulthood while serving in Congress presented unique challenges, particularly regarding reproductive decisions and public scrutiny.
“I got sworn into the House of Representatives when I was 29 years old. I was the youngest woman in American history to get elected to congress,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “There’s also this flip side where you have to then grow up in the public eye in a time that most people usually get to grow more privately, and when you get elected later in life you’ve made all of your mistakes in private.”
She also highlighted double standards faced by female politicians regarding family planning and age.
“This is just not something that men deal with. Men run for office, or frankly, they interview for jobs and people don’t think in the back of their mind, ‘OK this guy’s running for office, how old is he? Oh, well is he gonna wanna start a family?’” she said. “This is a choice I am making to feel more in control of my life.”
She acknowledged potential fallout, too.
“I am also aware that there is very strangely a political risk, or even a political tax that could come with sharing this information, and, per usual, that doesn’t influence my ultimate decision,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez has frequently advocated for reproductive healthcare. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, she told GQ in a 2022 interview that men also had a stake in reproductive freedom.
“For almost every woman that has gotten an abortion, there’s a man who has either been affected or liberated by that abortion too,” she told the publication at the time.
Her decision to document the fertility treatment drew immediate responses on social media.
Democratic strategist Xochitl Hinojosa praised the disclosure on X, writing: “THIS. We don’t talk about women freezing their eggs or what women have to go through to start a family. Thank you @AOC for your bravery.”
Other commentators reacted critically to the video and its framing.
User @thewakeninq wrote on X: “AOC just injected herself on camera, told everyone ‘don’t be weird,’ then acted shocked when the internet lost its mind. It’s not diabetes. It’s not a baby. It’s her freezing eggs so she can maybe have one later… while spending her entire career fighting to make sure other women can end theirs. The cognitive dissonance is Olympic-level. Don’t be weird? Too late.”
Ocasio-Cortez also briefly discussed the process on ABC’s This Week on Sunday morning.
