Instruments
infertility
The survey had four sections including open and, predominantly, closed-ended questions (e.g., multiple-choice or agree/disagree). The first section screened for eligibility as female university student of age 18–35. The second and third sections addressed general sociodemographic factors, reproductive experiences as well as general questions related to OC and alternative strategies (i.e., oocyte donation or adoption). The fourth section investigated the study outcomes after providing general information about OC for fertility preservation. The participants were randomly presented with one of two hypothetical scenarios depicting a 35-year-old childless woman who is facing an increased risk of future infertility because of either a medical condition or social reasons to delayed reproductive plans (Supplementary Table S1). The scenario was assigned automatically by simple randomization. Three agree/disagree items (including four levels and a “can’t decide”/”don’t know” option) investigated agreement with (1) the use of OC (“the woman should be able to choose whether to undergo OC”), (2) public funding (“society should support the woman’s expenses to undergo OC”), and (3) openness towards undergoing OC in the scenario (“if you were that woman… would you consider undergoing OC?”). A subsequent set of questions investigated the respondents’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) out-of-pocket for their own hypothetical OC in the assigned scenario, introduced by the following text: “What would you be prepared to pay for egg freezing if you were the 35-year-old childless woman in the aforementioned situation”. The WTP captures the perceived individual benefit in monetary terms and was measured in thousands Swedish krona (K SEK) using contingent valuation and the dichotomous choice approach