Inside New York’s Radical Egg-Freezing Clinic for Women

In a November episode of The Mindy Project, a pajama-clad Dr. Lahiri told an auditorium of bright-eyed college students that their baby days were numbered.

“Your body does not care if you are dating the wrong guy, or [if] the guy you’re with is also sleeping with the rest of your dorm,” she said. “Your body and your eggs just keep getting older, which is why freezing them is actually a pretty smart idea…it gives you a little more time to find that one diamond in the crap-heap of American men.”

The talk is part of a larger attempt to save her failing fertility clinic by cashing in on a new demographic of egg freezers—healthy young women likely to have kids before they’re 40, but willing to shell out thousands in case they don’t.

That may seem like a stretch, but elective or “social” egg freezing is an increasingly appealing option for young women who want to extend their childbearing window.

Cryopreservation banks host egg freezing cocktail parties to convince women it’s a good insurance policy for...