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Body ‘destroyed’ to avoid freezing eggs in Hong Kong, and US$130,000 wasted: woman’s painful journey after relationship break-up at 34
- Social distancing cut Julie off from the Hong Kong dating scene after her 10-year relationship ended, with her biological clock ticking loudly
- Discriminatory local laws regarding who can fertilise their frozen eggs saw Julie try freezing her eggs abroad, but complications pushed her back to Hong Kong
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Heartbreaking stories of families being separated plagued the early months of the coronavirus pandemic. For one Hong Kong resident, it disrupted her plans to start one.
Julie (not her real name) says her life took an unexpected detour in 2020 when she emerged from an almost 10-year relationship into the unfamiliar world of dating.
The timing could not have been worse: it wouldn’t be long until the pandemic took hold, wreaking havoc on people’s professional and personal lives.
Strict travel and social-distancing regulations, some of which still apply in Hong Kong, disrupted the traditional way people met, such as at a class, party or bar.
Online dating, a route the now 36-year-old business owner was reluctant to go down, became more popular than ever.
“I was single for the first time in almost 10 years and then the pandemic kicks off and I kept asking myself, do I really want to go out and risk having my name or my home address on these tracking websites as well as jeopardising client relationships and putting other people at risk just by being in close contact?”
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