A woman advising other women about fertility choices? Oh the horror |
She spoke about her own experience as an entrepreneur and mother—in that order. Upasana Kamineni Konidela was addressing a group of students at IIT, Hyderabad and happened to ask how many in the audience wanted to get married. More men raised their hands than women. “The women seemed far more career-focused!!!” she remarked on X (triple exclamation marks are hers not mine).
No surprises here but somewhere along the discussion, the grand-daughter of Apollo chairman-founder Prathap C Reddy veered into the option women have of freezing their eggs to delay having children while they focused on their careers. Freezing, she said, gives women the freedom to choose when to marry, when to have kids and to prioritise careers and financial independence.
Konidela is more than qualified to speak. Married at 27, she said she froze her eggs at 29, had her first child at 36 and is now expecting twins at 39.
Although Konidela insisted later that the issue was empowerment not privilege, freezing eggs is not exactly a routine or affordable choice for regular 9-5ers. The overwhelming majority of women who opt for it are not women who think to themselves: “Let me freeze a few eggs while I focus on getting that corner office.” It is those who want biological children but have not been able to........