BEIJING - An unmarried Chinese woman filed a suit against a Beijing hospital on Monday for rejecting her request to undergo a medical procedure to freeze her eggs due to her marital status, in the first courtroom challenge to Chinese marriage laws.
Ms Teresa Xu, 31, visited the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital at Capital Medical University in November 2018, wanting to freeze her eggs while she focused on her career as a writer on gender issues. Ms Xu, from northeastern Heilongjiang province, said on her first visit to the hospital for a checkup, the doctor asked about her marital status and urged her to have a child now instead of freezing her eggs."I came here for a professional service, but instead I got someone who was urging me to put aside my work and to have a child first," she said."I have already received a lot of this pressure in this society, this culture.
China's rapid economic growth has created the conditions for single women to become financially independent, but the country's policies and medical industry have not necessarily kept pace.