Wellness entrepreneur Diane Chia gets candid about her egg freezing experience

Far from being a hasty decision, Chia’s choice to freeze her eggs resulted from months of researching, planning and consultations with doctors to ensure that she was ready for what the process entailed.

“I knew I wanted to do it before I turned 38,” she shares. “I started thinking about egg freezing early last year. I was still in a relationship back then and sometimes, you think there’s no need to consider it when you’re in a relationship and [there’s a likelihood] of trying for a child naturally. But when we broke up, it made me more realistic. I knew there was a part of me that wanted to be a mother someday. But am I going to meet someone, get married and have a baby sometime in the next two years before I’m 40? Of course, I’m hopeful that it could happen, but I didn’t want to bank on that. I wanted to do something for myself,” she says. 

Since January 2023, Chia devoted three months of her life to detoxing, daily meditation, eating healthy and getting plenty of sleep– all in anticipation of the daily hormone injections she would need to take over a period of 10 days leading up to the harvesting procedure. It was during this time that she also decided to post about her experiences on Instagram, receiving overwhelming support from men and women. 

“Overall, most people were positive and supportive. Even the men! That’s what surprised me the most—that husbands and fathers would reach out, saying, ‘It’s so great that you’re sharing this,’ because they felt their wives were going through it alone. Even men who were infertile and couldn’t really talk about it felt more empowered to share. People think that fertility is a female issue, but it’s a male issue as well. If we can address it, talk about it and have early detection, many infertility problems can be avoided before it’s too late. It’s about empowering people with the knowledge to make those decisions for themselves. I think that’s what I’m trying to achieve through my sharing.”

Chia tells Tatler more about the challenges and takeaways of her egg freezing journey.

What research and preparation did you undertake to learn more about egg freezing?

I read up a lot about it and listened to a ton of podcasts too. I also spoke to people who had gone through it. A few of my friends around the world were doing it around the same time as I did. We shared about it often and all of us had different experiences. You do have to read up quite a bit and speak to people. But don’t over-consume information and get overwhelmed. I know friends who have gone to certain clinics where they give you a lot of information all at once, and it can make the experience very stressful. Stress is probably the worst thing for you during egg freezing. You need to be in a good frame of mind and feel like yourself as much as possible to have a better outcome.  

How did you prepare yourself physically and mentally for the days leading up to the injections?

I'm ordinarily a very active, high intensity workout kind of person. But I knew that I had to slow it down a bit, and focus more on pilates and yoga. I was very religious about the amount of sleep I got and my daily meditation. I ate clean and for those three months from January to March, I was disciplined about being healthy.   

What was your typical day like from start to finish while undergoing daily injections? 

Throughout this process, you have to inject yourself at the same time every day, or at least at a similar time. I do have to travel to Seremban for work, and there were days when I had to do my injections at 9am instead of 11am, and it was fine. You just have to schedule things around that and plan for when you have to do scans or clinic visits.

I would say in the mornings I had to be at home. Once you block off the mornings for that, to be honest, you can get on with the rest of your day as normal. By Day 7 onwards, I felt quite bloated. By Day 9, I felt very bloated and more tired, maybe a bit more irritable. You just need to be aware of these changes in your body, and adjust your activities according to that. Generally, I took care of myself very well throughout that time. I feel if you just sit at home and take it too easy, you won't feel like yourself. I think it's important to get out, have meetings, and talk to people as normal.   

What do you think are some important questions women should ask their doctor before getting this procedure? 

I think it’s important to understand where you're at. Many people just want to know the process, how many days it will take, how many injections, and all that. But no one thinks about where their body is at. This was the biggest question on my mind when I spoke to my doctor. People are not aware that you need to check yourself pretty early on. Few women think about evaluating what underlying conditions they may have, conditions that may run in their family like PCOS or cancer, that will affect their pregnancy.  

I think talking openly about the emotional effects is important. As women, we try to be strong all the time. I am certainly one of those who don’t get PMS and I barely ever have dull moments. Then at one point after the injections, I felt an overwhelming surge of feelings. For someone that maybe isn’t as self-aware, someone younger who is going through something like that, it can completely overwhelm you when you feel you don’t have the capacity to ask questions or talk to someone about it. That’s something I think your doctor has to evaluate–your emotional stability. Have these open conversations. Check that you’re in the right frame of mind before you do anything like this, and be sure you know the repercussions and side effects. There will always be side effects, and obviously I believe the benefits outweigh the negatives. But it's important for you to be totally aware of what you’re going to face.

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