Where to chill out in New York – and get your eggs frozen

Trellis is a brand-new fertility studio that bills itself as the “Equinox of egg freezing”. It may seem odd to liken a fertility clinic to a luxury gym chain, but for Jennifer Huang, the chief marketing officer at the boutique fertility studio in New York City, the comparison makes perfect sense. “We wanted to create a modern-day experience for women doing egg freezing,” said Huang. “That's why when we think of Equinox, something that's inspirational but very high-touch, we've really kind of reinvented what the client experience is around egg freezing.” Trellis certainly seems like the kind of place someone who works out at Equinox would like. The airy, colourful space is decorated in warm peach and millennial pink tones with pops of navy and gold. Trellis is a division of IntegraMed, the largest operator of fertility clinics in North America. This gives Trellis access to “amazing doctors, top-tier science, and cryostorage”, Huang said. “These are the things that sometimes take a very long time to set up. Because we're part of IntegraMed, we already have all of the infrastructure set up.” The best spas for your next wellness trip I took a tour of Trellis, where a doctor told me – I am 26 – that I was an “ideal young woman to come in here”. Egg freezing “used to resonate primarily with women in their late 30s”, Susan Herzberg, president of Prelude Fertility, a network of fertility clinics, told The New York Times. But Trellis – and other fertility centres – is now turning toward women in their 20s. I was offered a fertility consult, which Trellis was providing free of charge for those who attended the grand opening, and which are now advertised for US$45 on Trellis' website. Here's what it was like inside Trellis. It is in the Flatiron District, which has lots of shops, restaurants, and cafes. I took the lift up to the ninth floor and stepped into a narrow hallway that still seemed to be under construction. Trellis opened in mid-November. The space is decorated with warm peach tones, metallic accents, and pops of navy and what some might call millennial pink. 4 best hidden wellness secrets in Singapore for frequent fliers One corner was even created specifically for Instagram with a quote that read, “It's up to each of us to invent our own future.” As I looked around, it occurred to me that nothing about the reception area indicated that it was a medical facility. In fact, if I did not know it was one, I never would have guessed. Take a break at these top 4 wellness treatment and holiday resorts “We're not a scary fertility clinic,” said Huang. “We've built our place to be very inspiring, authentic, and transparent. “We have phone chargers everywhere, we've got special juices, places where people can film content. But it's really about the education.” A few minutes after I arrived, I sat down with Huang, who has gone through the egg-freezing process … … and one of the clinic's doctors, Dr Cary Dicken, to talk about what makes Trellis unique. According to the company's website, a 60-minute fertility assessment costs US$350 and you will get you an ultrasound and a fertility plan, while a two-hour fertility wellness exam costs US$299 and includes a customised meal plan. Trellis sets itself apart by providing each patient with a fertility coach who acts as their point person throughout the whole process, offering meal planning, and being transparent about pricing and the whole egg-freezing process. Patients can opt for meal plans from Trellis nutritionist Carlyn Rosenblum, who says she works with women to “boost fertility health” by removing factors that hinder fertility, such as smoking, excessive alcohol, caffeine, processed foods, added sugar, conventional meat/dairy, environmental toxins and stress. One recipe Rosenblum recommends is a sweet winter kale salad, which includes butternut squash, pomegranate seeds, hemp seeds, avocado oil, olive oil, micro-greens and raw honey. For its grand opening, Trellis was providing fertility consultations free of charge, an offer I accepted. The consultation includes a one-on-one session with a fertility coach, a blood test and a vaginal ultrasound. 5 chic wellness retreats to a revitalised, new you View this post on Instagram So excited to launch Trellis the 1st women’s fertility studio! Finally an inspiring place for women to plan for their future families! #eggfreezing #ownyourfertility @trellishealth A post shared by Jen (@jen150east) on Nov 15, 2018 at 8:37pm PST I stepped into the exam room and realised this was the only part of the space that felt even remotely like a doctor's office. And unlike a typical doctor's office, there were peach-coloured Turkish cotton bathrobes instead of paper gowns. The team at Trellis even monogrammed my name onto my dressing gown and let me take it home. I got my blood taken and then got the vaginal ultrasound, which I found to be quicker and easier than a typical Pap smear. It took about five minutes, including the time Dicken spent pointing out my ovarian follicles and explaining what I was looking at on the screen. If someone wanted to proceed with egg freezing after this consult, they would take 10 to 12 days worth of medication to stimulate the ovaries, in the form of self-injections. After the 10-12 days of injections, which include several quick visits to Trellis to monitor, they go to the SIRM-NY clinic in Midtown Manhattan for the egg retrieval surgery, the only part of the process that does not happen at Trellis. The retrieval process takes 20 or 30 minutes. Review: Apple Watch Series 3 is made for wellness junkies The eggs are frozen through vitrification – a process that reduces the risk of ice crystals forming on eggs through speed-freezing with liquid nitrogen – and are stored at the same facility. View this post on Instagram Egg freezing is no longer 'experimental' or a back-up option. In 2012, egg freezing was moved onto the list of standard fertility treatments alongside IVF. Since then around 20,000 women have frozen their eggs according to a recent The New York Times article. To learn more about this revolutionary approach to fertility schedule a consultation today. A post shared by Trellis (@trellishealth) on Aug 27, 2018 at 9:33am PDT Dicken said there is less than a 1 per cent risk of any complications related to egg freezing. “I think for almost all women, if they have the time and the means to do this, I see no downside in it,” she said. View this post on Instagram Egg freezing is no longer 'experimental' or a back-up option. In 2012, egg freezing was moved onto the list of standard fertility treatments alongside IVF. Since then around 20,000 women have frozen their eggs according to a recent The New York Times article. To learn more about this revolutionary approach to fertility schedule a consultation today. A post shared by Trellis (@trellishealth) on Aug 27, 2018 at 9:33am PDT It is likely the question of “the means” that keeps many people away from egg freezing. Trellis says it aims to be transparent about its pricing so there are no surprises. Still, costs can climb upwards of US$15,000 for a single cycle and a year of storage. Nine Christmas gifts for health and wellness lovers When clients come to Trellis, the first person they see is the fertility coach, Danielle DeSimone. I sat down with her in a small room that, again, did not remotely resemble a medical facility. “I'm like the client concierge, so I take women through the whole process,” DeSimone said. After I met DeSimone, my visit to Trellis was coming to an end. I left thinking that, sure, it would be nice for young women who want to put off having kids to be able to freeze eggs as an “insurance policy,” as Dicken put it. A tale of two chefs – and their global revival of temple food Some companies, including Apple, Facebook, and Google, have offered to cover the costs of egg freezing as an employee benefit. But until egg freezing is covered by insurance, it unfortunately will not be an option for many. But when it came to the design and the concept of education and transparency, Trellis hooked me. At the very least, it is certainly a place I would like to hang out, lounging in my Turkish cotton dressing gown and sipping a green juice. Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter This story was originally written by Katie Warren for Business Insider .

Where to chill out in New York – and get your eggs frozen

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Fertility treatment centres now targeting women in their 20s with Trellis creating ‘a modern-day experience for women’, writes Katie Warren

Fertility treatment centres now targeting women in their 20s with Trellis creating ‘a modern-day experience for women’, writes Katie Warren