How fertility treatment parties are changing attitudes towards parenting.

Fill a novelty syringe with jelly vodka, whip up some devilled eggs, dance to Ice Ice Baby and what do you have? You have an egg shower, of course. 

The number of women freezing their eggs in the UK is at a record high, with similar upticks for the fertility procedure seen across North America and western Europe. 

The reasons for this are numerous: career commitments, financial uncertainty and a wider choice of potential partners in the dating app-era can all put family planning on the backburner. We recognise now that life’s trajectory doesn’t always match up with traditional timelines in this respect. That in itself won’t be news to many. 

But what is interesting is the way this trend is showing up in culture. 

Egg freezing parties, or ‘egg showers’, are currently enjoying a buzz on TikTok with mainstream media coverage. These events, where friends gather and play games to celebrate the egg freezing process, are giving some women the freedom to set their own narrative around alternative parenting journeys.

Actress and infertility advocate Kellee Stewart recently teamed up with online gift card retailer Evite for a range of parenthood cards celebrating everything from IVF to surrogacy, confirming that a subject stops being taboo when you can buy a card for it. 

What does this tell us about culture?

Egg showers can be read as the latest in a long tradition of women challenging parenting paradigms and taking control of their own stories.

But perhaps it’s the ritual that’s important here. 

More than simply an excuse for a party (although we’d never hold that against anyone), an egg shower can unite an individual’s friendship group at a time when their support is crucial: at the beginning of a process which can be both emotionally and physically taxing. 

Events like this show us who our friends are. They instil a sense of safety in the world, reminding us that we’re part of a tribe, that we’re not alone on our journey. That we matter. 

This has the potential to be life affirming during a much publicised loneliness epidemic, where society presents few opportunities for deep social bonding. We think the popularity of egg freezing parties shows that the appetite for ritual celebrations, and the sense of belonging that comes with them, remains strong, no matter your life path, and we expect to see more new milestones like this recognised in the future. 

Thought starters for brands

Undoubtedly fertility and female agency are spaces of culture that only the most relevant, sensitive, and credible brands should be stepping into – but this emergent trend does provide us with insights that transfer to many other (and less sensitive) categories:

• Spot emergent rituals: egg showers and gender reveal parties are the latest in emergent rituals that reflect changes within the culture of family – and while rituals often emerge at a slower rate than trends, they’re often far longer lasting and more closely tied to value systems too. When you’re thinking about your prospective customers, which rituals have emerged recently?
  
• Bring people together: the loneliness epidemic crosses generations and geographies, and is exacerbated with each passing year. The majority of brands have the ability to create ideas and infrastructure that brings people together, create the spark for community, and give people a space to belong. How could your brand be the spark of a community? 
  
• Understand symbols of modernity: the language and symbols of different areas of popular culture rise and fall rapidly – their ephemeral nature (remember “So cute, so demure”?  No, us neither, it’s gone already) ensure that brands constantly feel on the backfoot, but there are symbols within popular culture that are indicative of something much broader at play (the phrase “egg shower” being a prime example), and keeping a track of these will help your brand better navigate popular culture. What symbols do you see with your customers that go beyond ephemera? 

To unlock more family insights, email discover@culturelab.co 

^{(Sources: CultureLab CultureIndex, November 2024)}