Amanda now has 14 eggs in storage
Compiled by Kathryn Blundell. Photograph Getty
WHAT IT FEELS LIKE…
''I’d never imagined I wouldn’t have children but, somewhere along theline, my career clock clashed with my imagined I wouldn’t have children but, somewhere along the line, my career clock clashed with my when she came across an article on egg freezing, biological clock and I was 40, single, with no plans for a family. Subconsciously I knew this couldn’t go on forever. Even my mother gave me a nudge after my brother had his first two children. She noticed how much fun I had with my niece and nephew and, she cut it out and gave it to me. It got me thinking, but my mind was on a new job I had just accepted in Istanbul, so I quietly packed it away.
Until that point, there had been no child-shaped gap in my life: I had wonderful friends and a stimulating job as a filmmaker that let me travel the world. I hadn’t questioned my fertility and didn’t have a serious partner, so starting a family hadn’t been a pressing issue. But my mother’s words, getting older and occasional panics that I’d left it too late triggered a change of focus, and two years later I found myself reading the article again. I knew I didn’t want to be a single mother, nor use donor eggs or sperm, so if I wanted to maximise my chances of having a baby, egg freezing seemed the best option.