DENVER – Earlier this week tech giants Apple and Facebook announced offering to pay female employees to freeze their eggs. They say it’s a way to help professional women pursue high-level careers without sacrificing their future families.

“It’s a little bit of a ground-breaker because most companies haven’t been that proactive,” said Dr. William Schoolcraft, director of the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine.

Facebook has already started offering the benefits. Apple will begin early 2015, making them some of the first companies to cover such costs.

Local clinic, Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, is helping women decide if it’s time to stop the biological clock or if their eggs will stand the test of time.

“We can give them an assessment of their fertility based on just ultrasound and blood test and either tell them ‘yes your eggs look amazing or they’re declining and you may not have the luxury of waiting that long,'” said Dr. Schoolcraft.

He says waiting can pose problem like infertility, greater risk of miscarriage and higher risk of chromosomal abnormalities. But not all companies are footing the bill and freezing eggs can cost about $10,000 and $500 a year for egg storage.

“Most of the time it’s out-of-pocket. There are few insurance companies that pay for fertility,” said Dr. Schoolcraft.

Even so, the doctor insists, taking a fertility assessment test is a worthwhile investment working women shouldn’t put off.

While many working women say this is a good move by Apple and Facebook and would love to see other companies follow suit, not everyone agrees.

Linda Meric, National Executive Director with 9to5 Colorado released this statement to The NOW:

“While we support benefits that provide women with more choices in the workplace, the United States is embarrassingly far behind other countries when it comes to family-friendly workplace policies … women are the primary or co-breadwinners in two-thirds of American families, and shouldn’t have to put their families on hold to be successful in the workplace.”ook