Why I took Australian women's egg freezing concerns to Parliament

What started as a personal decision to freeze my eggs at 28 has grown into a mission to help Australian women make informed decisions about their reproductive futures. Now, that mission has reached Parliament.

In 2019, at 28 years old, I made the decision to freeze my eggs.

At the time, I wasn't ready to have children, but I wanted to understand my options and make a proactive decision about my reproductive future.

What I quickly realised was just how difficult it could be to navigate fertility information. There were questions about age, success rates, costs, and what egg freezing could realistically offer, but finding clear, independent answers wasn't always straightforward.

That experience stayed with me.

Years later, it became the motivation behind PreservHer, an independent Australian education platform I founded to help women better understand egg freezing and their reproductive options.

And this week, that work reached an important milestone.

PreservHer's submission to the Australian Parliament's Senate Select Committee on Women's Health has officially been published.

What 127 questions revealed about women's fertility concerns

Through PreservHer, I've had the opportunity to connect with women at different stages of their fertility journeys.

Some are in their late 20s and wondering whether they should start thinking about egg freezing. Others are in their 30s and 40s and concerned they've left it too late. Many are trying to understand whether the financial investment is worthwhile and what their chances of success might actually look like.

While every woman's circumstances are different, certain questions come up repeatedly.

To better understand these concerns, PreservHer analysed 127 questions and requests for information received through two egg freezing education webinars held in September 2026.

We found that:

- 20.5% of questions were about age and timing.

- 16.5% were about cost and affordability.

- Almost half were from women concerned about age, cost, or expected outcomes, including how many eggs women might need.

These weren't abstract policy questions. They reflected the practical decisions women were trying to make about their lives, finances, and futures.

Questions such as:



Am I too old to freeze my eggs?

How many eggs should I freeze?

What are my chances of having a baby using frozen eggs?

Can I afford the process, and what happens if I need more than one cycle?

For me, these questions reinforced something I've believed since starting PreservHer: women need access to reliable fertility education before they reach a point where they feel pressured to make a decision.

Why we took these concerns to Parliament

When I learned about the Senate Select Committee on Women's Health, I saw an opportunity to bring the experiences and questions of women engaging with PreservHer into a broader national conversation.

Rather than simply sharing our observations, I wanted to present evidence of the information gaps and concerns women are experiencing.

Our submission calls for several important changes, including:

Earlier fertility education

Women should have opportunities to learn about fertility, reproductive ageing, and preservation options earlier in adulthood, rather than encountering this information for the first time when they begin considering treatment.

Better access to independent, evidence-based information

Understanding fertility shouldn't depend solely on navigating clinic websites, social media, or conflicting information online. Women deserve accessible resources that explain both the possibilities and limitations of fertility preservation.

Greater consideration of affordability

Planned egg freezing can cost thousands of dollars, and some women may require more than one cycle. Our submission calls for consideration of Australian Government financial assistance towards planned egg freezing to help address financial barriers.

More support for informed reproductive decision-making

Egg freezing is not an insurance policy or a guarantee of having a baby. It's one option among several, and women deserve balanced information that helps them decide what is right for their individual circumstances.

This is about informed choices, not encouraging every woman to freeze her eggs

One of the most important principles behind PreservHer is that egg freezing isn't the right decision for everyone.

My goal has never been to convince every woman to freeze her eggs.

It's to ensure women have the information they need to understand their fertility, consider their options, and make decisions that align with their own goals and circumstances.

For some, that may mean pursuing egg freezing. For others, it may mean exploring different pathways to parenthood or deciding not to pursue fertility treatment at all.

What matters is that those decisions are informed, realistic, and made without unnecessary pressure.

From a personal experience to a national conversation

When I froze my eggs at 28, I never imagined that experience would eventually lead me to establish an education platform, host conversations with fertility specialists, and contribute to a parliamentary inquiry.

But the more women I speak with, the clearer it becomes that the need for accessible fertility education is significant.

I'm proud that PreservHer has been able to bring real questions from Australian women into a national policy discussion.

And I'm grateful to everyone who has attended one of our webinars, asked a question, shared their experience, or supported the work we're doing.

This submission is an important milestone, but it's also part of a much bigger conversation about how we can better support women to understand and make decisions about their reproductive health.

Women deserve the opportunity to understand their options before they feel they've run out of them.

And that's what I'll continue working towards.

Read the submission

PreservHer's submission to the Senate Select Committee on Women's Health is publicly available on the Australian Parliament website.

Submission No. 386: PreservHer

Read the submission on the Australian Parliament website here.

Kimberley Caines is the founder of PreservHer, an independent Australian egg freezing and reproductive health education platform. A former journalist, she founded PreservHer following her own experience of freezing her eggs at 28.