{"id":275289,"date":"2022-09-03T11:45:30","date_gmt":"2022-09-03T16:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=275289"},"modified":"2022-09-02T12:58:57","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T17:58:57","slug":"pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/","title":{"rendered":"Some women\u2019s sports teams now pay for egg freezing, IVF: ‘Female athletes feel like they have to choose’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Historically, female professional athletes have often been forced to choose between their career aspirations and their <\/span>desire to have a family<\/span><\/a>. In some cases, that paradigm is shifting, as in the cases of\u00a0<\/span>tennis player <\/span>Serena Williams<\/span><\/a> and track star <\/span>Allyson Felix<\/span><\/a>, who continued competing after giving birth. But in many ways, the same old same old pressures remain, with many female athletes continuing to<\/span> believe that they need abortion to succeed<\/span><\/a>. Now, in a tacit admission that female athletes are pressured to delay motherhood, some athletic teams are offering benefits for assisted reproductive technologies, including egg freezing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A USA Today<\/a>\u00a0report notes that\u00a0the WNBA\u2019s latest collective bargaining agreement includes significant expansion of family planning and maternity benefits<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Los Angeles Sparks forward and president of the WNBA players union Nneka Ogwunmike commented of the collective bargaining agreement results, \u201cWith the responsibilities that women have to be both mothers and to also be working\u2026 we have to create resources to empower women in all of their roles.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Some of the WNBA<\/span> benefits<\/span><\/a>, like 100% paid maternity leave (though details on <\/span>how much<\/span><\/i> maternity leave is allowed are scarce) and a $5,000 annual childcare stipend, are undoubtedly pro-life; other benefits arguably pay lip service to supporting the players while protecting professional sports teams\u2019 financial bottom lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Female athletes say they faced pressure to abort: \u2018It seemed like no choice at all\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While some athletes, like Seattle Storm players Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird, celebrated the WNBA players union\u2019s victory in securing reimbursement up to $60,000 for adoption, surrogacy, or fertility treatments like egg freezing or embryo freezing, the implication is that female athletes who opt to take advantage of these benefits either won\u2019t bear their own children or will delay childbearing <\/span>for the sake of the team and\/or their career aspirations<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

After all, teams\u2019 financial bottom lines will presumably benefit if athletes don\u2019t leave for any extended length of time to bear children. That disappointing message \u2014 that women must choose between their careers and their desire to bear children \u2014 shows just how much ground women\u2019s sports have yet to cover to truly empower the players.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

USA Today also noted that several National Women\u2019s Soccer League teams have chosen to partner with fertility clinics so that members can freeze eggs or embryos at reduced cost. Portland Thorns defender Becky Sauerbrunn froze her eggs before her team\u2019s fertility clinic partnership was finalized. She opined, \u201cIt is not fair that elite female athletes feel like they have to choose between family and a career. Organizations have to be cognizant of that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A <\/span>focus on fertility<\/span><\/a> in female sports is long overdue. Live Action News previously reported that the<\/span> World Cup-winning U.S. women\u2019s soccer team<\/span><\/a> utilized menstrual cycle tracking to optimize their training schedules. Some<\/span> research suggests<\/span><\/a> that <\/span>cycle syncing<\/span><\/a>, adjusting workouts and nutrition based on which of four cycle phases a woman is in, could reduce training-related injuries for female athletes. B<\/span>ut the potential of <\/span>natural family planning<\/span><\/a>\/fertility awareness education is largely untapped territory for female sports teams. <\/span><\/p>\n

Athletes instead receive explicit or implicit encouragement to \u201cgive a lot of your prime reproductive years to being the best athlete in the building,\u201d as four-time Olympian bobsledder Kaillie Humphries told USA Today. Then, some undergo physically and emotionally grueling assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments in their mid-30s and beyond, when natural fertility is declining. Humphries, now 36, has spent $24,000 out of pocket on two rounds of in vitro fertilization (IVF), and remarked that while Team USA employs some 50 medical professionals, none are fertility experts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even USA Today\u2019s coverage of Humphries\u2019 story reflected a lack of understanding of the risks of certain fertility treatments. Humphries has Stage 4 endometriosis, and the article read, \u201cShould [Humphries] get pregnant naturally, endometriosis may put her at higher risk for ectopic pregnancy,\u201d but failed to acknowledge that IVF is also<\/em> associated with increased risk of ectopic pregnancy. Furthermore, the risk of ectopic pregnancy after IVF appears to be <\/span>more than twice as high<\/span><\/a> as the<\/span> risk of ectopic pregnancy for women with endometriosis who conceive naturally<\/span><\/a>. The conclusion then, that \u201c[The endometriosis diagnosis] makes [IVF] the safest route for Humphries,\u201d is not supported by the facts presented in the article.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Women \u2014 including professional athletes \u2014 deserve to<\/span> know how their menstrual cycles and hormones work<\/span><\/a>, and to have the design of their female bodies and<\/span> their capacity to bear children<\/span><\/a> respected and taken into account by their employers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Historically, female professional athletes have often been forced to choose between their career aspirations and their desire to have a family. In some cases, that paradigm is shifting, as in the cases of\u00a0tennis player Serena Williams and track star Allyson Felix, who continued competing after giving birth. But in many ways, the same old same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":635,"featured_media":275394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15,3473,3],"tags":[13136,11345,756,1749,13137,18880,12998],"yoast_head":"\nSome women\u2019s sports teams now pay for egg freezing, IVF: They 'feel like they have to choose'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In an admission that female athletes are pressured to delay motherhood, some teams offer benefits for reproductive technologies like IVF and egg freezing.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Some women\u2019s sports teams now pay for egg freezing, IVF: They 'feel like they have to choose'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In an admission that female athletes are pressured to delay motherhood, some teams offer benefits for reproductive technologies like IVF and egg freezing.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-03T16:45:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-02T17:58:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1419860723-athletes.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/48e3f680e24f898411f4ea650018e01b\"},\"headline\":\"Some women\u2019s sports teams now pay for egg freezing, IVF: ‘Female athletes feel like they have to choose’\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-03T16:45:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-02T17:58:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/\"},\"wordCount\":778,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"egg freezing\",\"female athletes\",\"IVF\",\"Motherhood\",\"reproductive technologies\",\"sports\",\"WNBA\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\",\"Newsbreak\",\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/\",\"name\":\"Some women\u2019s sports teams now pay for egg freezing, IVF: They 'feel like they have to choose'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-03T16:45:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-02T17:58:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"In an admission that female athletes are pressured to delay motherhood, some teams offer benefits for reproductive technologies like IVF and egg freezing.\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Some women\u2019s sports teams now pay for egg freezing, IVF: ‘Female athletes feel like they have to choose’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/48e3f680e24f898411f4ea650018e01b\",\"name\":\"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/27753e50a006dd85ec60e2a77e6c6a52?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/27753e50a006dd85ec60e2a77e6c6a52?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN\"},\"description\":\"Anne Marie Williams is a mom of five with 10 years of nursing experience, primarily in the ICU setting. Her writing advocates for an approach to women's health that respects and supports the female body and fertility, and educates on the harms of hormonal birth control. She hosts a postpartum podcast to help other moms experience postpartum as a time of grit, growth, and grace.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/anne-marie-williams\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Some women\u2019s sports teams now pay for egg freezing, IVF: They 'feel like they have to choose'","description":"In an admission that female athletes are pressured to delay motherhood, some teams offer benefits for reproductive technologies like IVF and egg freezing.\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Some women\u2019s sports teams now pay for egg freezing, IVF: They 'feel like they have to choose'","og_description":"In an admission that female athletes are pressured to delay motherhood, some teams offer benefits for reproductive technologies like IVF and egg freezing.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2022-09-03T16:45:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-09-02T17:58:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1419860723-athletes.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/"},"author":{"name":"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/48e3f680e24f898411f4ea650018e01b"},"headline":"Some women\u2019s sports teams now pay for egg freezing, IVF: ‘Female athletes feel like they have to choose’","datePublished":"2022-09-03T16:45:30+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-02T17:58:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/"},"wordCount":778,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["egg freezing","female athletes","IVF","Motherhood","reproductive technologies","sports","WNBA"],"articleSection":["Analysis","Newsbreak","Opinion"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/","name":"Some women\u2019s sports teams now pay for egg freezing, IVF: They 'feel like they have to choose'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-09-03T16:45:30+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-02T17:58:57+00:00","description":"In an admission that female athletes are pressured to delay motherhood, some teams offer benefits for reproductive technologies like IVF and egg freezing.\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-womens-sports-teams-pay-ivf-egg\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Some women\u2019s sports teams now pay for egg freezing, IVF: ‘Female athletes feel like they have to choose’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/48e3f680e24f898411f4ea650018e01b","name":"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/27753e50a006dd85ec60e2a77e6c6a52?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/27753e50a006dd85ec60e2a77e6c6a52?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN"},"description":"Anne Marie Williams is a mom of five with 10 years of nursing experience, primarily in the ICU setting. Her writing advocates for an approach to women's health that respects and supports the female body and fertility, and educates on the harms of hormonal birth control. She hosts a postpartum podcast to help other moms experience postpartum as a time of grit, growth, and grace.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/anne-marie-williams\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/635"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275289"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275395,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275289\/revisions\/275395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}