More than half of women want to have children but worry about freezing eggs

The Taiwan Egg Freezing Association (TEFA) announced the results of the "2026 Women's Fertility Preservation and Willingness Survey" and found that more than half of women of childbearing age in my country actually want to have children. Even if they are unfortunately diagnosed with cancer in the future, more than 60% are willing to freeze their eggs to preserve their chances of having children. However, they are generally worried about being unable to afford it.

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More than 60% wish to freeze eggs to preserve their vitality

The National Health Administration launched the "Medical Fertility Preservation Subsidy Pilot Program" on September 1 last year, providing fertility preservation subsidies to breast cancer and blood cancer patients aged 18 to 40. Zhang Yingchun, director of the Maternal and Child Health Group, pointed out that in about a year since the pilot program was launched, a total of 215 cancer patients have passed the subsidy eligibility review, of which 44 are men and 171 are women.

The Taiwan Egg Freezing Association (TEFA) announced yesterday the results of the "2026 Women's Fertility Preservation and Willingness Survey" and pointed out that 55. One percent of the women surveyed have the desire to have children, and if unfortunately diagnosed with cancer, as many as 64%. Eighty percent are willing to preserve the chance of having children through medical egg freezing, and as many as 58% of cancer patients surveyed. Two percent are willing to have children, seventy-four. Seven percent are willing to undergo medical egg freezing, but 63% are willing to do so. Eight percent of cancer patients surveyed are most worried about the financial burden brought about by medical egg freezing.

Zeng Wanting, chairman of the Taiwan Egg Freezing Association, said that according to the 2023 cancer registration data, among the new cancer cases among women of childbearing age in my country between the ages of 20 and 39, the proportion of non-breast cancer and blood cancer was as high as 71%. Medical fertility preservation subsidies are not available, and some cancer patients cannot receive government subsidies because the hospitals that treat cancer are different from those for fertility preservation.

Therefore, Zeng Wanting pointed out that medical fertility preservation subsidies should cover "the risk of fertility damage caused by malignant tumor treatment, gonadotoxic treatment or disease" rather than being limited to specific cancer types. The "degree of damage to fertility caused by treatment" should also be considered as the basis for subsidy evaluation, and the restriction that cancer treatment and fertility preservation must be in the same hospital should be relaxed.

Zhang Yingchun said that the National Health Administration continues to collect opinions and evaluate how to expand the subsidy targets, including the possibility of using "cancer treatment to have long-term effects on fertility" as a subsidy condition. However, there is no clear implementation timetable at this stage, and the operation method of cross-hospital referral and cross-agency implementation model are also being studied.

The National Health Administration’s maternity preservation subsidy is limited to 10 years

Huang Xinhui, chief physician of TFC Taipei Fertility Center, pointed out that the cost of egg freezing, including medications, may cost around 120,000 to 150,000 yuan. After that, you need to pay a fixed freezing storage fee of about 10,000 yuan per year. Generally, it is recommended to use it as soon as possible if the cancer treatment is stable and the pregnancy is safe. The fertility preservation subsidy provided by the National Health Service is limited to ten years. If the subsidy period exceeds, cancer patients can still pay the cost themselves and continue to extend the preservation time.