05/31/2026: Germany Rearms, Freezing the Biological Clock

Summary

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60 Minutes – June 1, 2026

Germany Rearms, Freezing the Biological Clock

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Main Theme

This episode of 60 Minutes focuses on two major stories:

1. Germany’s dramatic military transformation and rearmament in response to global threats, especially the war in Ukraine and shifting U.S. policy.
2. The rapid normalization of egg freezing in the U.S. and its impact on women’s choices, corporate benefits, industry practices, and medical realities.

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Segment 1: Germany Rearms

Overview

Germany has undergone a seismic shift from historic pacifism to rapid military rearmament, driven by insecurity from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, threats of reduced U.S. military commitment, and changing leadership. The episode explores national sentiment, military preparedness, high-tech investments, industry resurgence, and evolving attitudes toward military service.

Key Discussion Points

• NATO Shifts & U.S. Withdrawal:
  Just days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the war in Iran, the Pentagon plans to withdraw 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany.

  • [02:17]

• War’s Impact on Mindset:
  The Russian invasion of Ukraine fundamentally shook Germany’s sense of security and spurred a “Zeitenwende,” or historic turning point, pushing Germany to build its own defense capacity.

  • "We all experience in Germany and in Europe that the war is back. We never expected that and we were so hopeful that it would never happen again, but it does."
    —Boris Pistorius, Defense Minister [05:03]

• Growing Military Preparedness:
  Increased federal funding, a bigger defense budget, and embrace of advanced tech, such as drones and even “biological assets” (i.e., cyber-controlled cockroaches for reconnaissance).

  • “The drones are the future of warfare.” —German Military Major [08:33]
  • “We have now more than 1,500 at the battlefront. Day by day in use.” —German Military Major [08:59]

• Military Industrial Resurgence:
  Major arms companies like Rheinmetall rapidly growing; startups explore AI, robotics, and surveillance insects.

  • "We are the fastest growing defense company in Europe at the moment." —Armin Pap, Rheinmetall CEO [11:54]
  • "We have to be smarter, we have to use intelligence, we have to use autonomy because we wouldn't have enough personnel or enough equipment if you look at what Russia produces right now."
    —Stefan Wilhelm, Swarm Biotactics [11:24]

• National Identity and Historic Baggage:
  The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin looms over conversations about the Bundeswehr’s assertive new posture and the struggle to address pacifist roots and World War II guilt.

  • "If you want to live in peace, in freedom, security ... then you need to be willing to defend it." —Boris Pistorius [14:59]

• Recruitment Challenges:
  History, culture, and generational attitudes limit enlistment despite increased enthusiasm from some; possible return of conscription discussed.

  • “The issue still sparks protests. A recent poll found an overwhelming majority of 15 to 25 year olds would not take up arms." [13:00]

Notable Quotes

• "It's getting more clear to [the recruits] that everything we are training here for could be one day real. We don't hope that, but we're preparing exactly for that."
  —Unnamed German Military Major [04:03]
• "There is not only the war against Ukraine, this is a war against the root based international order."
  —Boris Pistorius, German Defense Minister [06:03]
• "Germany is the third biggest economy in the world, and the biggest one in Europe. Everybody in Europe expects us to be the strongest ally in NATO."
  —Boris Pistorius [08:11]
• “We educated two generations. If something happens in the world we call Washington and Washington will help us, that changed.”
  —Armin Pap, Rheinmetall CEO [12:38]

Important Timestamps

• 02:17: Context for U.S. troop withdrawal and German rearmament
• 05:03: Pistorius on the return of war to Europe
• 06:32: Pistorius laying out the rearmament timeline and goals
• 08:33: Defense industry pivots to drones, AI, and insect-based tech
• 13:00: Recruitment struggles and possible return of conscription
• 14:59: Pistorius addresses pacifist critics and Germany’s defense needs

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Segment 2: Freezing the Biological Clock

Overview

With U.S. fertility rates at record lows and more women delaying motherhood, elective egg freezing is becoming common. This segment examines the technology, its implications for women’s autonomy, its costs and limitations, and the burgeoning business interests reshaping fertility care in America.

Key Discussion Points

• Procedure & Science:
  Egg freezing is now widely accessible, no longer limited to cancer patients; involves hormone injections, retrieval, then storage.

  • "Egg freezing is as revolutionary as the pill was in 1960s and 70s." —Dr. Tomer Singer [17:52; 19:36]

• Empowerment vs. Pressure:
  Many women say it gives them peace of mind and flexibility; critics worry it shifts pressures and can give a false sense of security.

  • "I'll be able to enjoy these times with my partner a bit more instead of rushing to have kids … there definitely is that TikTok clock and I'm not ready quite yet."
    —Yasmin Higbee [20:48]
  • “My fear… is that they think this is guaranteed… that they put a baby on ice. It’s not that.” —Vardit Ravitsky [31:10]

• Biological Realities:
  Even with egg freezing, success rates decline with age and not all eggs yield healthy babies. Many women must do multiple cycles.

  • "You start out with this many eggs, then this many fertilize, this many turn into embryos... It's a gamble."
    —Dr. Lucky Secon, fertility specialist [33:35]; Vardit Ravitsky, ethicist [33:46]
  • “25% of eggs in a woman’s 20s are chromosomally abnormal ... at 40, 60-70%. By 45, 90%.” —Dr. Lucky Secon [23:00]

• Financial & Social Barriers:
  High costs persist ($12K–15K per cycle, ongoing storage and usage fees), even as employers begin covering it as a benefit—primarily for well-resourced and white-collar women.

  • "The majority of women who freeze their eggs electively are white and well-resourced." —Vardit Ravitsky [38:31]

• Industry & Marketing:
  Corporate interests are rapidly consolidating fertility clinics; some pressure doctors on revenue. Marketing targets women, sometimes with “girls’ nights” and beauty events.

  • "[Fertility] is becoming an industry, and it is painful to me."
    —Dr. Marcel Seaters [37:59]

• Debate Over Societal Solutions:
  Ethicists suggest broader social reforms—paid leave, affordable childcare—would support motherhood more equitably than medical gambles.

  • “A better solution… would be [supportive] policies to make it easier for women to have babies younger.”
    —Vardit Ravitsky [35:25]

Notable Quotes

• "Do something today that your future self will thank you for." —Tina Rampino [29:17]
• “There are some people who feel that the companies do that [cover egg freezing] to keep you at work so that you won’t have a child and leave... I personally don't see it that way. … It’s a good way to retain top talent.”
  —Yasmin Higbee [26:24]
• "Egg freezing and IVF is going to be the way our next generation will expand. … Sex is going to be for fun and for pleasure."
  —Dr. Tomer Singer [39:58–40:22]
• “You’ll have frozen eggs—wait, are you saying we won't have sex to have children?”
  —Anderson Cooper [40:34]
• “Not everyone has to freeze their eggs. Not everyone has to have children. But everyone should … really think about what they want.”
  —Dr. Lucky Secon [41:43]

Important Timestamps

• 17:33: Inside the egg retrieval process
• 19:36: Dr. Tomer Singer compares egg freezing to birth control revolution
• 23:00: Dr. Lucky Secon on declining egg quality with age
• 26:11: Discussion of corporate egg freezing benefits, motives, and criticisms
• 29:17: Tina Rampino’s personal journey and embracing solo motherhood
• 31:10–33:35: Cautionary stories about the limits of egg freezing
• 35:25: Debate on societal support versus medical solutions
• 36:55–38:18: Industry consolidation, marketing strategies, and business pressures
• 38:31: Discussion of socioeconomic disparities
• 39:58+: The future vision of ubiquitous egg freezing and IVF as societal norm
• 41:11+: Calls for more education and informed decision-making for younger women

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Memorable Moments

• Cockroach Reconnaissance:
  Bill Whitaker drives a Madagascar hissing cockroach equipped with a “bug-sized backpack” to demonstrate unconventional battlefield tech.

  • [10:05–10:41]
  • "You know, this is really bizarre." —Bill Whitaker [10:35]

• Egg Freezing Real Talk:
  Dr. Singer unflinchingly predicts sex for reproduction may become obsolete—a moment that delights and startles the panel.

  • "I'm sure my 2 year old will ask me ... you had unprotected intercourse ... Russian roulette?" —Dr. Tomer Singer [40:38–40:49]

• Emotional Testimonies:
  Tina Rampino shares the guiding quote from her egg freezing journey:

  • “Do something today that your future self will thank you for.” [29:17]

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Summary: Key Takeaways

• Germany's rapid military buildup reflects new realities in European security—a fundamental turn from its postwar stance, fueled by the war in Ukraine, U.S. disengagement, and rising Russian threats. The country is investing in both traditional and cutting-edge defense—including drones and even robotic insects. Yet Germany faces generational reluctance to serve and must reckon with enduring unease over military identity.

• Egg freezing in the U.S. is moving from last-resort fertility option to widespread elective procedure, driven by women’s career and lifestyle priorities, high-profile employer benefits, and profit-seeking in the fertility industry. The segment carefully balances the optimism and empowerment many women find in egg freezing against sobering statistics, costs, and the ethical debate over whether it distracts from needed societal reforms. There are moving stories of empowerment—and warning tales about dashed hopes and the limits of technology.

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This summary provides a comprehensive and engaging rundown for listeners seeking the essence and details of this 60 Minutes episode, from European geopolitics to the most personal advances in reproductive technology.

Transcript

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[Bill Whitaker]

This past November, we were invited by the Bund, the German military, to observe basic training as a squad of recruits ran punishing drills, honing the skills they would need to defend against an enemy assault.

[German Military Major]

Everything we are training here for could be one day real. We don't hope that, but we're preparing exactly for that because of the war in Ukraine. Yes, of course.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

Let's get some eggs.

[Catherine Schneider]

Let's go. Let's get some eggs.

[Leslie Stahl]

More and more American women are freezing their eggs to preserve their fertility. Those are the eggs. Could egg freezing offer what previous generations only dreamed of, the chance to put the biological clock on ice?

[Scott Pelley]

There definitely is that tick tock clock and I'm not ready quite yet.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

I think that egg freezing is as revolutionary as the pill was in 1960s and 70s.

[Anderson Cooper]

It's as revolutionary as the pill.

[Leslie Stahl]

Leslie I'm Leslie Stahl.

[Bill Whitaker]

I'm Bill Whitaker.

[Leslie Stahl]

I'm Anderson Cooper. I'm Sharon Alfonsi.

[Armin Pap]

I'm John Wertheim.

[Leslie Stahl]

I'm Cecilia Vega.

[Scott Pelley]

I'm Scott Pelley.

[Leslie Stahl]

Those stories tonight on 60 Minutes.

[Bill Whitaker]

US Troops have been stationed in Germany since the end of World War II, providing critical support for our NATO ally. This month, just days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the war in Iran, the Pentagon announced plans to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany. Spurred by Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine and persistent pressure from President Donald Trump for Europe to shoulder more of its own defense, European nations are beefing up their militaries. Nowhere is the impact more profound than in Germany. Scarred by their country's Nazi past, Germans embraced pacifism after the Cold War. Defense Spending collapsed to the point some soldiers were buying their own gear. But as we first reported in December, the landscape has transformed. Today, Germany is racing to rearm. In November, we were invited by the Bundeswehr, the German military, to observe basic training. At the Munster army base in northwest Germany, A squad of recruits ran punishing drills, honing the skills they would need to defend their position against an enemy assault. The major in charge has been training troops since 2018. The Bundeswehr won't reveal his name to shield his identity from hostile actors. So have you seen a difference in the recruits of today versus years past?

[German Military Major]

Yes, I think there's a huge difference. They know what they're here for and it's getting more clear to them that everything we are training here for could be one day real. We don't hope that, but we're preparing exactly for that.

[Bill Whitaker]

Because of the war in Ukraine?

[German Military Major]

Yes, of course, yeah.

[Bill Whitaker]

The war in Ukraine has shaken Germany's sense of security, but the country is also shaking off the shadows of its brutal military past. This Holocaust memorial in Berlin, a stark reminder of that history, stands close by the Reichstag, where the national parliament is moving to restore Germany's military as Europe's most powerful force. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has overseen a 23% uptick in enlistments over last year. How is the war in Ukraine changing Germany's view of its own security?

[Boris Pistorius]

I grew up in the Cold war and since February 2022, we all experience in Germany and in Europe that the war is back. We never expected that and we were so hopeful that it would never happen again, but it does. And we have to do everything to be able to deter and defend.

[Bill Whitaker]

Pistorius was appointed defense minister in 2023, almost a year after Russia's large scale assault on Ukraine. When conservative Friedrich Maersk became Chancellor last May, he kept Pistorius, the blunt talking social democrat, in his post.

[Boris Pistorius]

I mean, you have to be clear in what you want, what you are standing for.

[Bill Whitaker]

We met him at the Bendler Block, the Berlin building complex once housed the Nazis army high command. Today it's Germany's equivalent of the Pentagon. When we spoke with Pistorius in November, he didn't pull any punches on Russian President Vladimir Putin's ambitions.

[Boris Pistorius]

There is not only the war against Ukraine, this is a war against the root based international order. And at the same time, he does not stop stressing what he's really longing for, like a renaissance of the Soviet empire. He wants to be the dominant power in Europe and he wants to be the third of three world powers like China and the U.S. this is what he is heading for.

[Bill Whitaker]

Pistorius warns Putin is rapidly rebuilding Russia's military. And he told us Russia could be in position to attack the west by the end of the decade. When does Germany need to be ready for war?

[Boris Pistorius]

We should do everything to be that in 2029. This is our objective. This is still a way to go.

[Bill Whitaker]

Three days after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, then Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, the incursion marked a Zeitenwende a turning point for Europe. He announced a special 100 billion euro fund to kickstart Germany's military buildup three years later. In the run up to his election as Chancellor, Friedrich Merz said he was troubled as well by President Trump's threats to pull back from NATO. My absolute priority will be to strengthen

[Friedrich Merz]

Europe as quickly as possible so that step by step, we can really achieve independence from the usa.

[Bill Whitaker]

You're gambling with World War Three. After this contentious Oval Office meeting with President Zelensky in February 2025, Friedrich Meertz's we must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war. And he pushed parliament to exempt defense spending from Germany's debt. Break the constitutionally mandated spending cap. The money started flowing. The defense budget is projected to rise almost 80% by 2029. How big should the German military be?

[Boris Pistorius]

Germany is at 33rd biggest economy in the world, and the biggest one in Europe, of course. So everybody in Europe expects us to be the strongest ally in NATO in Europe.

[Bill Whitaker]

With the surge of federal funding, the long moribund German defense industry is springing back to life.

[German Military Major]

The drones are the future of warfare.

[Bill Whitaker]

We met Sven Kruek in Berlin. He is co CEO of drone manufacturer Quantum Systems. The company with factories in Germany and Ukraine landed a 25 million euro contract with the Bundeswehr to produce up to 750 Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance drones, ISR for short.

[German Military Major]

We have now more than 1,500 at the battlefront. Day by day in use, 1,500 drones. Drones in use in Ukraine. Day by day, night by night, drones,

[Bill Whitaker]

including Quantums, have helped reshape the battlefield. A few months after the 2022 invasion, Russian forces tried to cross the Donets river in eastern Ukraine. Explosions and smoke obscured their movements. A quantum drone equipped with a thermal camera helped Ukraine see, target and stop the advance.

[German Military Major]

And this actually was our moment where everybody has seen quantum systems and especially ISR drones can make a difference.

[Bill Whitaker]

Krug told US Germany isn't investing enough in cutting edge technologies. But we saw evidence the Defense Ministry is thinking outside the box, way outside the box. It's funding tests to see if these giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches can be repurposed from repulsive pests to miniature battlefield assets.

[Stefan Wilhelm]

This is a left turn and this is a right turn.

[Bill Whitaker]

Stefan Wilhelm's fledgling startup, Swarm Biotactics in central Germany is working with the Bundeswehr to develop technology that can steer the creepy critters autonomously and send them on reconnaissance missions. He let me take control.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

Wow.

[Stefan Wilhelm]

They're super resilient and as you can see, I mean, they can crawl through tiny spaces, can go up the wall into pipes, like underground and rubble.

[Bill Whitaker]

You know, this is really bizarre.

[Stefan Wilhelm]

Is it?

[Bill Whitaker]

Swarm's insect neuroscientists attach electrodes to the roach's antenna. They insist this stimulating their natural ability to navigate. The electrodes are hidden in these bug sized backpacks along with a battery and microchips. They're working to shrink the technology to soon look like this. Swarm's AI generated video shows how they might be deployed, carrying cameras, microphones and Doppler radar into war zones. Right now we're hearing that Russia is rearming itself. They've got more tanks, more armaments. How does this compete?

[Stefan Wilhelm]

We have to be smarter, we have to use intelligence, we have to use autonomy because we wouldn't have enough personnel or enough equipment if you look at what Russia produces right now. So I think this is a shift we see in the German startups.

[Leslie Stahl]

Still.

[Bill Whitaker]

Germany is placing a big bet on its biggest defense contractor, Rheinmetall, a major arms supplier to German troops in both world wars. Rheinmetall and its subsidiaries have won a commanding share of recent government contracts.

[Armin Pap]

We are the fastest growing defense company in Europe at the moment.

[Bill Whitaker]

Armin PAP has been CEO since 2013. Pragmatic, forceful, strategic. He built Rheinmetall into a pillar of NATO rearmament.

[Armin Pap]

Rheinmetall was an ammunition company. It's going from ammunitions to vehicle platforms. But now we go to digitization, we go to satellite business, we go to naval business.

[Bill Whitaker]

His company's success and support of Ukraine made him the target of a Russian assassination plot. But that didn't slow him or the company down. Rheinmetall is building and expanding 13 arms factories across Europe.

[Armin Pap]

We educated two generations. If something happens in the world we call Washington and Washington will help us, that changed. President Trump said it very clear, America has her own problems. The Europeans have to help themselves. And now with The Ukrainian Russian war. It's very clear about that, that we have to do more.

[Bill Whitaker]

In 2024, Germany began sending its 45th Armored Brigade, 5,000 troops to Lithuania. Once brutally occupied by the Nazis, Lithuania now welcomes German troops bolstering NATO's eastern flank. Germany's first permanent deployment of a combat ready brigade abroad since World War II. Despite the uptick in enlistments, the Bundeswehr faces a manpower challenge. It wants to add about 75,000 active duty troops to its all volunteer force by 2035. History weighs on recruitment. The issue still sparks protests. A recent poll found an overwhelming majority of 15 to 25 year olds would not take up arms. If volunteer numbers fall short, the government may reintroduce the draft. Soldiers we met in basic training told us they find the reluctance of their generation to volunteer troubling. I think a lot of it must have to do with the history of World War II.

[German Military Major]

Yes, of course.

[Bill Whitaker]

Private Lasse told us he's proud to serve.

[German Military Major]

Nobody wants to go to war, but if it happens, you have to be

[Friedrich Merz]

there to defend your country.

[Bill Whitaker]

The week before we spoke to Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. He presided over a public swearing in of new recruits in Berlin. Deutschland, Deutschland. Deutschland. They shouted. The world hasn't heard Germany assert itself like this since World War II. But times have changed. When you talk about rebuilding the German military, there are many people who recoil at that thought.

[Boris Pistorius]

I try to explain them. If you want to live in peace, in freedom, security, with the right to go on the street and to demonstrate against or for whatever you want to love, however, to want and to believe in any God you want, then you need to be willing to defend it. Because otherwise there might be people like Vladimir Putin who will take that kind of living away from us.

[Friedrich Merz]

Hi, my name is Lloyd Lockridge and I'm the host of a new podcast from Odyssey called Family Lore. In this podcast, I'm going to have people on to tell unusual and sometimes far fetched stories about their families.

[Dr. Marcel Seaters]

I've heard my whole life that she invented the margarita.

[Friedrich Merz]

And then we're going to investigate those stories and find out how much of it is true.

[Boris Pistorius]

He gets a patent one month before the Wright Brothers.

[Friedrich Merz]

Oh my God. Please follow and listen to Family Lore, an Odyssey podcast, available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows.

[Leslie Stahl]

Fertility rates in the US are near historic lows. One reason is a sharp decline over the last three decades in the number of American women having babies in their 20s. And yet there's been no change in women's. Biology or the age at which fertility declines. Unsolvable problem. Enter egg freezing. As we first reported last year, freezing embryos for in vitro fertilization has been possible for decades. But freezing unfertilized eggs was a tougher scientific challenge, Used initially for patients with cancer and other conditions that threaten fertility. Egg freezing for non medical reasons became an accepted practice 13 years ago. And since then, demand has skyrocketed, with hundreds of thousands of eggs now frozen, raising big money, big hopes and big questions. Could egg freezing offer women what previous generations only dreamed of, the chance to put that dreaded ticking of the biological clock on ice. Early one rainy Tuesday, Kate Sonderegger came to a fertility clinic in midtown Manhattan to undergo a minor surgical procedure to harvest and then freeze her eggs the next morning.

[Anderson Cooper]

Hi.

[Dr. Lucky Secon]

Hi.

[Leslie Stahl]

At a different fertility center, we scrubbed up and met another egg freezing patient, Catherine Schneider. How are you feeling?

[Catherine Schneider]

Excited.

[Leslie Stahl]

Her doctor Tomer Singer, head of Northwell Health's fertility practice, escorted her into the or.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

Let's get some eggs.

[Catherine Schneider]

Let's go. Let's get some eggs.

[Leslie Stahl]

Egg retrieval is the culmination of an arduous process. Nearly two weeks of daily self administered hormone injections, sometimes several a day. The shots induce the ovaries to ripen multiple follicles, the sacs that contain eggs. So that a surgeon can go in with a tiny needle, you can see

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

the white end of the needle, and

[Leslie Stahl]

drain the fluid in those follicles, which is then run into an adjacent embryology lab to search for the eggs. So the patient is right around the corner.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

Correct.

[Leslie Stahl]

We watched as a pair of embryologists did the delicate work of maneuvering tiny pipettes under a microscope to find and isolate Catherine's egg cells in the fluid.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

And here are all the eggs together. See 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

[Leslie Stahl]

Balls.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

Yeah.

[Leslie Stahl]

Those are the eggs.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

Those are the eggs.

[Leslie Stahl]

Oh, my goodness. After a few hours, the eggs are put onto tiny special straws, then plunged into liquid nitrogen and stored in tanks at negative 320 degrees, where they will stay, possibly for years, until their owner is ready to thaw them.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

Add sperm, and after we inject the

[Leslie Stahl]

sperm, it fertilizes and turn them into embryos, which is effectively the second half of ivf. According to the data thus far, as with ivf, there are no differences in the health of babies born from frozen eggs.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

I think that egg freezing is as revolutionary as the pill was in 1960s and 70s.

[Anderson Cooper]

It's as revolutionary as the pill.

[Leslie Stahl]

Yeah, that changed everything. As you know.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

I know women had the Option of choosing who to be with and not to accidentally get pregnant or with the wrong guy. Egg freezing took it an extra level. So you don't have to have a baby at 30 because you're 30 or 35. You can delay fertility into your 40s. You'll have women having kids in their late 40s with their own eggs that were freezing in their 20s and 30s.

[Anderson Cooper]

There's that famous painting of the young woman with tears going down her face. Oops, I forgot to have a baby. That won't be true anymore.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

Correct. I think that we're pushing the envelope.

[Yasmin Higbee]

I'm currently 40.

[Scott Pelley]

I froze my eggs when I was 35.

[Yasmin Higbee]

The first time I did it, I was 34 years old. And the second time I was 36,

[Scott Pelley]

I did two cycles. Last year when I was 34, we

[Leslie Stahl]

spoke to a group of women about their decision to freeze their eggs.

[Anderson Cooper]

Why is it a good idea?

[Scott Pelley]

I 100% know that I really would love to have children.

[Leslie Stahl]

Yasmin Higbee is 30, works in consulting and has a serious boyfriend.

[Scott Pelley]

I'll be able to enjoy these times with my partner a bit more instead of rushing to have kids. Because there definitely is that TikTok clock that started and I'm not ready quite yet.

[Yasmin Higbee]

It's an insurance. I know that, you know, I'm going to be an older mother.

[Leslie Stahl]

Namitha Jacobs, 38, the health care administrator and strategist, isn't ready yet because she hasn't found the right partner.

[Yasmin Higbee]

It takes the stress away from dating. You're not pressured to find someone and settle down and get married. You don't hear the ticking.

[Anderson Cooper]

That damn biological clock, it ticks in every woman's head. Amazing.

[Leslie Stahl]

Like it or not, says Dr. Lucky Secon of Fertility Clinic RMA of New York. That damn clock is very real.

[Dr. Lucky Secon]

We're born with all of the eggs that we're ever going to have, and we don't make new eggs and we can't fix or repair them. It's always decreasing over time.

[Anderson Cooper]

So you're born with this number?

[Dr. Lucky Secon]

Yes.

[Anderson Cooper]

And it starts decreasing right away.

[Dr. Lucky Secon]

It pretty much starts decreasing even before you're born. You're a fetus in your mother's womb at 20 weeks, and that's when you have the peak number of eggs, 6

[Leslie Stahl]

to 7 million eggs at 20 weeks?

[Dr. Lucky Secon]

Yes.

[Leslie Stahl]

And from then on, the number keeps going down and the eggs keep aging.

[Anderson Cooper]

So when you freeze an egg, you are stopping it from aging any further. Correct. So if you remove the egg and freeze it when you're 28, that egg is 28 years old until you thaw it.

[Catherine Schneider]

Yes.

[Anderson Cooper]

It's incredible because it's not just the

[Leslie Stahl]

quantity of women's eggs that decreases with age. It's also their quality, meaning their likelihood of becoming a baby. Even at peak fertility in women's 20s, some 25% of eggs, when combined with sperm, will create embryos that are chromosomally abnormal and will likely lead to miscarriages. And the percentages rise from there.

[Dr. Lucky Secon]

As you get to 35, that number has steadily increased to about 30 to 35% of embryos being abnormal from your 35 year old eggs. At 37, 38 years of age, 50%. That's a turning point. Things start to move more rapidly, and at 40, you're looking at 60 to 70% of embryos being abnormal by 45.

[Anderson Cooper]

90%, 90%.

[Leslie Stahl]

Correct.

[Dr. Lucky Secon]

A lot of times people think that if they've done all the right things, if they've led a healthy lifestyle, they do yoga, they've never smoked a cigarette in their lives, they feel younger than their age, and they feel like their eggs will be younger than their age. And I have to explain to them that we have no data to suggest that you can influence your egg quality in that way, unfortunately.

[Anderson Cooper]

Is there an optimal age to freeze your eggs?

[Dr. Lucky Secon]

Yes, your 20s, because that's when you're at your lowest possible rate of genetic errors in the embryos that result from those eggs. And you also have a lot more eggs at that age.

[Vardit Ravitsky]

Okay.

[Leslie Stahl]

Kate decided to freeze her eggs at the unusually young age of 22 because she's going to medical school and knows she has a long journey ahead of her.

[Anderson Cooper]

You know, education for four years, training

[Scott Pelley]

for anywhere from four to seven years after that.

[Anderson Cooper]

And so I'm not even going to think about building a family personally until after I'm done with all of that. Younger and younger women are beginning to freeze their eggs.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

When I started doing egg freezing in 2012, most of the women were 40, 41, 42. When I see patients today, most of them are late 20s, early 30s.

[Leslie Stahl]

He says there used to be a stigma, as though freezing eggs meant something hadn't worked out in a patient, but not anymore.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

It became a common thing. It's almost empowering. You come in, I'm in my 30s. I'm not ready for a baby. I want to freeze my eggs. I'm not going to compromise on the wrong guy.

[Leslie Stahl]

Freezing eggs is expensive. A single cycle, including medication, costs an average of 12 to $15,000, plus another 500 to $1,000 each. Each year for storage. To thaw and fertilize the eggs later on costs an additional $10,000. Back in 2014, Apple and Facebook made headlines when they started offering egg freezing as a covered benefit for their employees. Today, nearly half of the largest corporations in the US, those with 20,000 or more employees, cover egg freezing. Our parent company paramount among them.

[Scott Pelley]

When I was job searching, it was something I was really looking for.

[Leslie Stahl]

Carissa Simic changed jobs three years ago.

[Scott Pelley]

More and more companies started to offer it or I was seeing it.

[Anderson Cooper]

So that was a consideration.

[Leslie Stahl]

Absolutely.

[Anderson Cooper]

As to where you worked?

[Scott Pelley]

Yes, absolutely.

[Leslie Stahl]

Her egg freezing cycles were covered, as were Nemetha's. But there's also been criticism of those companies motives.

[Anderson Cooper]

There are some people who feel that the companies do that to keep you at work so that you won't have a child and leave, not to make you happy, but to keep you at your desk.

[Yasmin Higbee]

I personally don't see it that way. When I learned about the fact that they're offering this really wonderful benefit, it made me more dedicated and committed to my company. Actually, it's a good way to retain top talent.

[Tina Rampino]

My insurance did not cover egg freezing at the time, so I did.

[Leslie Stahl]

Tina Rampino, 46, learned about egg freezing in its early days when she went for a routine doctor's Visit at age 35 and got a message she wasn't expecting.

[Tina Rampino]

My gynecologist said to me, have kids now. You're running out of time. You can get married whenever you want to get married, but you can't have kids forever.

[Anderson Cooper]

Whoa.

[Tina Rampino]

And I went home and I think I cried and I was like, what should I do?

[Leslie Stahl]

The doctor had mentioned egg freezing and

[Tina Rampino]

I said, you know, this is kind of scary. But I decided to do it.

[Leslie Stahl]

Paying out of pocket. She froze 10 eggs, which she considered her backup plan.

[Scott Pelley]

I did not have a partner.

[Leslie Stahl]

Lindsay Smithson Stanley also paid out of pocket when she froze her eggs at 35. A few years later, she got engaged to Paul. They want children, but not until they're married and Lindsay finishes her PhD.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

There's a very good chance that we'll get another.

[Leslie Stahl]

So Dr. Singer recommended thawing her 18 frozen eggs, fertilizing them with Paul's sperm, and then doing genetic testing to assess viability.

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

That's a day five hatching, which is

[Leslie Stahl]

possible once fertilized eggs grow into five to seven day old embryos. The results? Lindsay and Paul have four chromosomally normal embryos on ice waiting for them.

[Anderson Cooper]

Did they tell you the gender?

[Scott Pelley]

We have two boys and two Girls,

[Anderson Cooper]

you can't stop grinning.

[Scott Pelley]

It's exciting.

[Leslie Stahl]

Tina's story took a different turn after the pandemic. Still single, she decided to become a single mother by choice and selected a sperm donor.

[Tina Rampino]

I had just turned 40, and I knew that motherhood was something that I always wanted. Sorry, I'm like.

[Leslie Stahl]

But the first embryo created from her frozen eggs fail to implant. But then where's Christopher?

[Tina Rampino]

There's Christopher.

[Leslie Stahl]

A second embryo from her frozen eggs did. She gave birth to a son, Christopher.

[Tina Rampino]

He's such a happy, healthy boy. He's so playful. He loves people. On the day that I started my egg freezing cycle, I screenshotted a quote that said, do something today that your future self will thank you for.

[Anderson Cooper]

Ooh.

[Tina Rampino]

And that is something that I think about all the time, because that really was the decision that changed my life.

[Leslie Stahl]

But not every egg freezing story has such a happy ending.

[Catherine Schneider]

It was just devastating. It's really the worst thing that's ever happened to me by far.

[Vardit Ravitsky]

They think they have an insurance policy that they don't have.

[Leslie Stahl]

Does egg freezing promise young women more than it can deliver? When. When we come back. More and more American women are freezing their eggs to preserve their fertility. The number of procedures has increased more than six times over, from 6,000 in 2014 to nearly 39,000 in 2024. Investors have taken notice, seeing a market that could one day include a significant percentage of. Of all young American women. Venture capital and private equity firms have backed egg freezing startups and have bought up and invested in existing private and academic fertility clinics to consolidate them into giant networks. But not everyone is convinced that egg freezing is such a gift to young women.

[Vardit Ravitsky]

You're taking the financial cost, you're taking the medical cost. For what? For a gamble.

[Leslie Stahl]

Vardit Ravitsky is president of the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute, and is a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School.

[Anderson Cooper]

The women we've spoken to, they're almost giddy with this choice. They say that they're freezing the biological clock. That ticking thing is, you know, unbearable, and it's gone.

[Vardit Ravitsky]

I totally understand why young women are excited about it. My fear when I hear young women say I froze the biological clock is that they think this is guaranteed. They think I put a baby on ice, not my eggs, and I'm just going to go and thaw it when I'm ready to become a mother. It's not that that's the problem.

[Leslie Stahl]

She points to stories like Evelyn Gosnell's. Evelyn froze her eggs three times. Times at ages 32, 36 and 38, for a total of 30 eggs, considered a very safe number.

[Anderson Cooper]

Did you have some level of comfort?

[Catherine Schneider]

Absolutely. Even my doctor was like, that's insane. Like you're, this is going to be a breeze. Totally no problem.

[Leslie Stahl]

But when Evelyn and her now fiance Edward went to use her 31st, only 19 survived the thaw, an unusually poor result. Even worse, once those 19 eggs were fertilized, only one grew to be an embryo. Anxiously hoping for positive results, they sent a few cells off for genetic testing to see if the embryo was viable.

[Catherine Schneider]

So I was at work and got this message saying, we have your test results before we give them to you. Just confirming if you want to know the sex.

[Anderson Cooper]

Boy, girl.

[Catherine Schneider]

I just started to think, oh, wow, they've asked me this. If I want to know the sex, it means that there's a real embryo there. It means that this is real, it's normal, it's going to be fine, it's all going to be good. And then boom, I get the report and I open it and it's abnormal. And it was a girl.

[Leslie Stahl]

There was no chance the embryo could become a baby. Stories like Evelyn's are heartbreaking. And though rare, there have also been incidents where a storage tank has malfunctioned and thousands of eggs and embryos have been destroyed. Dr. Lucky Secon says she explains to all her patients that frozen eggs can can never be a guarantee because just as in naturally occurring pregnancies, there is drop off at every step along the way. She calls it an inverted pyramid.

[Dr. Lucky Secon]

You start out with this many eggs and then this many fertilize, this many turn into embryos. This many embryos are actually genetically healthy, and this many embryos actually implant.

[Vardit Ravitsky]

You're taking a bet. It's a gamble that you'll actually need these eggs. It's a gamble that it would work. And even if you manage to get pregnant, the older you are, the riskier it is to be pregnant. So you're taking multiple risks, you're gambling on multiple stages.

[Anderson Cooper]

But are you saying don't do it?

[Vardit Ravitsky]

You know, Leslie, I'm not saying don't do it. I'm saying it's probably a good option for some people, but I would like young women to really have options.

[Leslie Stahl]

Good job. She believes that society pulls pushes high achieving women to get so much accomplished before they have children that they run out of time. And it would be better if they could become mothers younger.

[Vardit Ravitsky]

The optimal time from a biological medical perspective is in your 20s or early 30s. But the socially optimal time is later than that. So I think we're telling women, oh, in your 20s, focus on your education, your career, finding a partner, having financial stability, relationship stability, that when you do have a baby, you can be a responsible mother.

[Anderson Cooper]

I mean, you're making it sound as if that's wrong. It sounds pretty right to me.

[Leslie Stahl]

What's wrong with that?

[Vardit Ravitsky]

I think elective egg freezing sends women a message of, okay, don't worry, we have a solution for you. Delay motherhood. It will cost you thousands of dollars. It does involve medical risks. There's a good chance it won't work at the end. And if it does work, your pregnancy will be riskier for you and for your baby.

[Scott Pelley]

And.

[Vardit Ravitsky]

But that's okay. We have a solution.

[Leslie Stahl]

A better solution, she argues, would be to have policies like paid parental leave, flexible hours, child care at the workplace to make it easier for women to have babies. Younger, who's dating. But these women told us they weren't ready to have children.

[Scott Pelley]

Younger, still active and trying to find

[Leslie Stahl]

the right person and say they understand there's never certainty.

[Anderson Cooper]

How do they explain that? It's not a guarantee.

[Leslie Stahl]

They said exactly those words.

[Scott Pelley]

It is not a guarantee.

[Leslie Stahl]

So what are the chances of success if you freeze your eggs? A 2022 study from one large fertility center found that 70% of women who froze at least 20 eggs before the age of 38 had a baby. But success rates dropped off considerably. The older women were, and the fewer eggs they froze. Which means that many women, like Carissa and Nemetha, do more than one round of egg freezing to bank more eggs. And that brings us back to the money. Business is booming in the field of fertility, and egg freezing is a big part of it. Companies target women with catchy ads on social media, host fun events like fitness classes, even a manicure, to give women information and draw them in.

[Dr. Marcel Seaters]

What I've seen is a transition in my own field.

[Leslie Stahl]

Dr. Marcel Seaters, a fertility specialist with the University of California, San Francisco and a past president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, says getting women information is great. But she worries that the emphasis on profits she's seeing in private equity backed fertility companies is creating warped incentives.

[Anderson Cooper]

Have you heard in any companies that are owned by large firms that the doctors are being pressured to encourage more cycles, encourage things that will lead to more revenue?

[Dr. Marcel Seaters]

I would hope it's not universal, but that is definitely occurring in some companies. How quickly do you get someone, how many cycles do you get per patient? That's how revenue is based. That's how payment and compensation is based. And so that's what the motivation becomes.

[Anderson Cooper]

It becomes much more business. It does.

[Dr. Marcel Seaters]

I mean, I have always bristled when I hear my specialty called an industry and I think in the past it wasn't. But I do think it is becoming that and it is painful to me. Pink number 14.

[Leslie Stahl]

She also worries about the unfairness when lower income women and those who don't work for large companies can't afford egg freezing. Vardit Rovitsky agrees.

[Vardit Ravitsky]

The majority of women who freeze their eggs electively are white and well resourced. And there's a significant gap in your options and your reproductive autonomy. If you have resources or you don't,

[Anderson Cooper]

everyone cannot do this, right? Poor women.

[Dr. Lucky Secon]

I think we have a lot of work to do as a field. We don't yet know how to properly drive down the cost. It's a very expensive endeavor.

[Anderson Cooper]

If this is being done just for someone's peace of mind, right. Should they go through this?

[Dr. Lucky Secon]

I think it depends on their age and attitude towards family building. If someone says to me, I'm 35, I know I want children, then yes, I think they should absolutely do this. Especially if they say I want to have more than one child. Because you know, they might be ready at 37, 38 and have no trouble at all. But when are they going to be ready for baby number two?

[Leslie Stahl]

Stars. Speaking of baby number two, Tina gave birth to a second little boy, Christopher's baby brother Theo, from the final embryo from her first frozen eggs.

[Tina Rampino]

See the cars?

[Leslie Stahl]

Egg freezing technology Northwell's Dr. Singer thinks will get better and better.

[Anderson Cooper]

Do you think that one day virtually every young woman would do this as it would be routine?

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

I really do think so. Once it's going to be affordable, covered by insurance. I'm a big believer that egg freezing and IVF is going to be the way our next generation will expand. I think that having timed intercourse or unprotected intercourse for reproduction is going to be falling out of favor in the next generation or so.

[Anderson Cooper]

Wait, wait, what?

[Boris Pistorius]

Yeah, I did.

[Anderson Cooper]

What did you just say?

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

I said that sex is going to be for fun and for pleasure. But most likely a generation from now when couples want to have kids, most likely they're going to be using artificial reproductive technique. You'll have frozen eggs.

[Anderson Cooper]

Wait, are you saying that we won't have sex to have children?

[Dr. Tomer Singer]

I'm sure my 2 year old will ask me. Mom, dad, you had unprotected intercourse. What about chromosomal abnormalities, miscarriages, twins? What were you doing? Russian roulette?

[Anderson Cooper]

Dr. Singer thinks in the future. All women will freeze their eggs so that the only reason to have sex is for fun.

[Leslie Stahl]

I would say that while they didn't seem entirely convinced of that, they are definitely with him on egg freezing and the need for more education.

[Anderson Cooper]

Should gynecologists talk about this when you go in and you're young?

[Leslie Stahl]

Yes, absolutely, yes.

[Anderson Cooper]

I wonder why they don't.

[Scott Pelley]

I think our health classes were always, this is how you don't get pregnant. And I think opening the conversation to this is how your body works. This is, you know at what age you might want to consider this if you want a family. Knowledge is just power in this circumstance.

[Anderson Cooper]

If a woman goes to her gynecologist, do you think that doctor should introduce a subject?

[Dr. Lucky Secon]

I think it's a good idea. I do. It's a very sensitive topic, so you have to kind of navigate it carefully. You don't want to be judgmental. Not everyone has to freeze their eggs. Not everyone has to have children. But everyone should take the moment to consider their options and really think about what they want.

[Leslie Stahl]

A piece of good news. Evelyn, whose egg freezing journey led to heartbreak, kept trying. After many more rounds of egg retrieval and ivf, she and Edward welcomed a baby girl, Breaking down the high cost of egg freezing. The majority of women have to pay out ofpocket@60minutes overtime.com. I'm Leslie Stahl. We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.

[Dr. Marcel Seaters]

I've been hearing for decades that the markets can solve climate change. Today, we have more incentives for market solutions than ever. And emissions are rising on this season of drilled carbon capture cowboys, the story of three market solutions colliding in one multinational boondoggle. Gotta give Bruce and the guys credit.

[Leslie Stahl]

They're Republicans.

[Dr. Marcel Seaters]

They don't give listen anywhere you get podcasts.