Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez completed her egg-freezing journey and vowed to keep sharing updates despite facing political backlash.
Ocasio-Cortez, 36, took her nearly 10 million Instagram followers through the final day of the two-week process on Saturday, documenting egg retrieval day starting at 5:30 a.m. The Bronx and Queens congresswoman wore skincare eye masks for the procedure, which she thought “was a really nice way to bring some lightness to this process,” she said.
After the procedure, Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) shared that she had been informed of her final count, both in eggs retrieved and which were mature. “As I’ve mentioned previously, out of respect for all the different kinds of fertility and family journeys that people have, I will not be sharing my specific numbers,” she said.
“So instead of focusing on generalizations and fear, I instead want to encourage people to operate from the facts of your body specifically and knowledge of our reproductive systems, particularly shared by licensed fertility specialists,” she continued.
The congresswoman recalled her doctor explaining that she would be “under anesthesia and asleep the entire time.” She then described a moment of anxiety before the procedure. “And as I sat on the other side of my doctor’s desk, I had this sudden intrusive fear-based thought. I imagined myself waking up totally alone,” she said in the social media video, which had comments limited.
“Now when I fast-forward a couple of weeks later at the end of today, I can really confidently say that I couldn’t have been more wrong. In fact I woke up surrounded by the deepest and most important friendships in my entire life,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
“I think that it really drove home that a family is always what you make it,” she added. Notably, she made no mention of her longtime fiancé Riley Roberts in the post.
The lefty legislator announced on Aug. 8 that she was freezing her eggs and began sharing a series of social media posts taking the public through the process. Following the announcement that she was freezing her eggs to feel “more in control of my life,” speculation began to swirl over whether AOC had quietly split with Roberts.
The 36-year-old congresswoman, who is rumored to be mulling a bid for higher office in 2028, underwent the two-week process during the August recess, when the US House of Representatives is out of session for over a month. She told a Post reporter last week that she doesn’t “comment on my private life” when asked about her relationship status with her fiancé.
Despite commenting last week about the scrutiny and media frenzy she’s faced since sharing her journey, AOC promised to continue sharing updates as she recovers from the procedure.
“Many of you have asked if I will do a few more videos after my procedure day. The answer is yes!” She wrote on Instagram Saturday.
“I will be following up with a few more vlogs to show recovery and answer some final questions and topics,” she concluded, before thanking her followers for their well wishes which “made an impact.”
In the viral moment that launched the ongoing coverage, Ocasio-Cortez first announced her decision on Instagram Stories on Aug. 8, explaining it was something she had been thinking about for a very long time. “I want to share with you all a decision that is very personal that I have made that has taken me time to consider, weigh and save up for,” she said at the time. “And it is of a sensitive matter and a personal matter and usually I keep my private life quite private, but I have made the decision to start freezing my eggs.” She also emphasized the financial burden, noting her insurance covered nothing and the process was 100% out of pocket.
Ocasio-Cortez addressed the political backlash directly in a video shared via Instagram Stories on Aug. 15, responding to questions about whether she regretted going public. “One question that I received earlier is do I regret coming out publicly about this due to all of the political negativity and the larger political context,” she said. “And the answer to that simply is — no. I was born a woman. Period,” She continued, “And the way I feel is any negativity or judgement that I would receive at any point is negativity that I would receive for being a woman whether I shared this information or not, and so I might as well help others.”
She also connected her decision to the broader political climate in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” on Aug. 9. “In this political environment where this administration is denying reproductive care to women across the country, from abortion rights to the ability to carry out a healthy pregnancy, I think it’s important for us, as leaders, to have these conversations and share these processes,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez said on the Sunday show that she hasn’t ruled out running for president or for the U.S. Senate in two years.