Socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has completed her egg-freezing journey, complaining of “big” bloating as she wrapped up a process she has said gives her more control over her personal and political life.
“When they said that the bloating the day after the procedure was real, they meant it was real. I’ve heard that it can peak up to three to four days after the procedure, so I might wake up tomorrow, and it could be even bigger than this. But we’re working with what we got,” AOC said in a ‘Day-15’ Instagram post documenting her journey.
“One of the reasons why the bloat is so big is because of the trigger shot that you receive before your procedure,” she added. “Basically, what your trigger shot does is that it puts your ovaries into overdrive, and it tells your ovaries it is time to ovulate like, big time.
Earlier this month, AOC announced she was freezing her eggs and filmed herself injecting hormones into her stomach, describing the decision as a “privileged” opportunity to gain more control as she weighs a possible 2028 presidential run.
“Normally, I keep my private life quite private. But I have made the decision to freeze my eggs. And I want to share this because I was weighing it for a very long time, and there isn’t a ton out there, and it can feel very daunting,” she said at the time. “I am aware there is, very strangely, a political ‘risk’ or ‘tax’ that could come with sharing this information.”
The 36-year-old, who is childless, described to her millions of followers the “reflective mood” she has been in recently and the pressures that ultimately led to her decision.
“There’s also this flip side where you have to then grow up in the public eye, in a time that most people usually get to grow more privately,” she lamented. “And when you get elected later in life, you’ve made all of your mistakes in private. You’ve learned. You’ve grown in private. But when you get elected in public, and when you’re young, you have to do all of that in public.”
The move generated national headlines and injected motherhood into the political discourse, prompting some White House officials to warn that attacks on the self-described democratic socialist could alienate female voters ahead of the November elections, according to Axios.
AOC, who was first elected to Congress at age 29, said she is documenting her fertility journey to help educate women about what she described as a lack of awareness surrounding women’s health, including puberty, pregnancy, and menopause.
Her decision to preserve her fertility also marks a notable shift in tone for the Bronx leftist, who has long championed feminist causes, including abortion-on-demand, while previously suggesting that young people reconsider having children because of climate change.
“Our planet is going to hit disaster if we don’t turn this ship around, and so it’s basically like, there’s a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a February 2019 Instagram live video. “And it does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question, you know, ‘Is it okay to still have children?’”
A woman’s fertility is closely tied to the number and quality of eggs in her ovaries, with age playing a major role in egg quality. Research has found that fertility declines significantly with age, with women in their mid-30s generally having lower chances of conceiving than women in their 20s, according to Trianglen Fertility Clinic.
By the late 30s, fertility declines further, and after 41 years, egg quality declines rapidly. On Saturday night, AOC said she has so far avoided significant pain and that bloating has been her biggest symptom.
“So I might be looking like this for a little bit. I will say–I do feel very lucky in my process. Tylenol and ibuprofen have made a lot of the discomfort very manageable, and so my biggest symptom is the bloating. But I’m not in any huge pain right now,” AOC said.
“It’s possible that this belly hasn’t even peaked yet. So we’ll wake up tomorrow and see what we’re working with today,” she added. “I’m really focused on recovery.
