New Delhi, Oct. 22 -- For Sonia Mathur, 33, an IT professional from Delhi, the idea of preserving her fertility for the future seemed empowering on the surface, but the reality was anything but straightforward. "From the moment the doctor laid out the process-hormone injections, egg retrieval, the possibility that it might not even work-there was a knot in my stomach and questions milling in my mind. What if my body didn't respond well?"

The procedure itself, described clinically as "routine," felt anything but that. "Daily hormone injections left me feeling bloated, irritable, and emotionally fragile. On the day of the retrieval, while I was sedated for the procedure, I couldn't shake the anxiety that came with it," says Mathur. It's an...