On Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted a morning in her life on Instagram. She was in the car by 7:45 a.m., on the way to ABC News in Washington for an interview on the show This Week, with a Target lunchbox in tow. When she got to the studio, she went into hair and makeup. An hour later, she pulled out that lunchbox and spread an array of injectable fertility drugs across a table.
Earlier in the weekend, the 36-year-old New York congresswoman had shared online that she has begun the process of freezing her eggs. Posting a video injecting herself in the stomach at home on day one, she acknowledged that sharing the choice could be a “political risk” but said she wanted “to show more depictions of women having full lives in every context and every choice.”
Indeed, AOC’s new morning routine is relatable for anyone who has been through fertility treatment—whether freezing eggs or going through in vitro fertilization (IVF). The world—and our jobs—don’t stop for fertility planning. How many women have injected fertility drugs in the bathroom before a major presentation at work or brought them through airport security on a business trip? Carting refrigerated medications to an interview on national TV may be shocking for those who have never seen something like this up close. But for those who have been through it, it’s absolutely normal.
