'I choose not to settle for anything less than I deserve': Julie Tan freezes her eggs to find the best partner

When looking for a lifelong partner, it is important that the relationship lets you become a better version of yourself.

While some people find the one for them at an earlier age, there are also others who take longer to meet their significant other.

For local actress Julie Tan, to have "more freedom and time to choose" her best partner, she has decided to freeze her eggs.

The 31-year-old started posting a series of Instagram Stories (IGS) from Aug 28, documenting her egg-freezing journey.

The Ministry of Health, recognising women who desire to preserve their fertility, including the desire to marry and conceive, but are unable to find a partner when they are younger, has expanded elective egg freezing to women aged 21 to 37 for non-medical reasons.

In one of Julie's IGS, she said that she had always thought that she would be married with children by the age of 30.

She added: "I've been talking about breaking generational trauma and I was presented with a choice to do so by ending my four-year relationship. Being able to freeze my eggs definitely gives me more freedom and time to choose what's best for me."

The Story also includes footage of her injecting hormones by herself into her lower belly.

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"At 31, I choose to start all over again. I choose not to settle for anything less than I deserve. I choose myself," said Julie.

In another Instagram Story posted yesterday (Aug 29), Julie was accompanied by her primary school friend while she took the injections and she even had her friend help her with it.

She shared: "I think one of the perks of having someone with you during the process of injection is so that you wouldn't feel alone. You will definitely feel loved and supported!"

Julie is not the first Singaporean celebrity who chose to undergo the procedure.

When actress Ase Wang was told by her doctors in 2017 that she would face difficulties in conceiving naturally because she had low reserves of eggs, she decided to freeze her eggs in the following year, even though social egg freezing wasn't allowed in Singapore then.

In an interview in 2021, Ase said that she froze her eggs in Thailand in 2018 when she was still single because she wanted to focus on her career and had not met her Mr Right yet.

Ase married American-born Chinese tech entrepreneur Jon Lor in July 2020.

Despite the tough procedure, she became a first-time mum in early 2021 via IVF treatment but continued advocating at the time for the ban on social egg freezing to be lifted.

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yeo.shuhui@asiaone.com

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