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Crystal Houser hopes to have her eggs frozen on June 14 - her 21st birthday.

First, she would have to undergo more than a week of fertility treatments, although she has no reason to believe she would have difficulty conceiving naturally.

She would like to have the procedure at a private clinic in Mississauga, Ont., that is urging women to "Freeze Your Clock" by storing eggs as a pre-emptive strike against aging.

Removing eggs for later use with in vitro fertilization is not new, but it has mainly been provided to women whose ability to conceive will be affected by cancer treatments.

But Essam Michael, who runs the clinic ESRM Biotech, believes more women should have the option to put their eggs on layaway, allowing them to postpone motherhood and eventually have a child without using an egg donor.

"It's not cosmetic," Dr. Michael said of the service. "It's insurance."

The clinic claims to be the first in Canada to provide long-term gamete storage to young men and women who are fertile but not ready to be parents - a business plan that has already seen success in the United States and Britain.

But the relationship between private practitioners and new medical technologies such as egg freezing raises important ethical concerns, says Arthur Schafer, director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba.

"It may be oversold, to put it crudely," he said. "When confronted with this marketplace medicine, the patients can't be sure whether they're talking to a health-care professional or a fast-talking salesman."

His advice boils down to "buyer beware" for women hoping to help stall their biological clocks, especially because egg freezing is not a regulated industry.

Dr. Michael agrees that any advance in reproductive technology must be approached with caution. He says his prospective patients must meet with a psychologist before having their eggs removed, a process that is both invasive and expensive.

While Dr. Michael believes more women should be educated about their reproductive limitations, he does not think egg freezing is right for everyone and said he would not recommend it for women younger than 28.

"It shouldn't be treated like a real-estate business," he said. "No billboards. Advertising, to me, is unethical."

Instead, he has created a website, Freezeyourclock.com, where women are told to "consider a life where age really is nothing but a number; where today's goals at work don't derail tomorrow's priorities at home, where a biological clock isn't a ticking time bomb."

His patients can learn about their options through the site, he said, or through referrals from their family doctors.

Dr. Michael says it is unlikely that Ms. Houser will actually have her eggs frozen, despite the fact that she appears on his website and attended his clinic yesterday to discuss the service with the media.

"She's far too young," he said.

Ms. Houser heard about the treatment through a "friend of a friend" and contacted the clinic in April. She has dropped out of school twice and does not know what she wants to do with her life, nor when she will be ready to support a child.

The Toronto grocery store cashier and Beer Store employee says she wants to be able to have kids "on my own pace" and believes that freezing her eggs will allow her to conceive when she's ready.

"I realized that in 15 years I'll be 35," she said. "And a lot of women are starting menopause early these days."

Ms. Houser would not discuss how she plans to pay for the treatment, but said she hopes to start the process immediately.

Before having the eggs removed, clients must undergo 10 to 12 days of fertility treatments, injecting themselves with a follicle stimulating hormone.

Each unit of the hormone costs about $1, with women younger than 30 requiring 75 to 100 units a day, and those older needing between 250 and 300.

The procedure itself costs $2,500, and clients must then pay $300 a year to store their frozen eggs.

After all this, Dr. Michael acknowledges, the eggs may not produce a child.

"Survival of these eggs is not guaranteed," he said. "But it's a better option than having a donor egg."

Health Canada revealed earlier this year that it is reviewing the science and safety issues of freezing women's eggs for future use - a review that could limit the number of clinics licensed to provide the service.

Most women who have had eggs frozen at the McGill Reproductive Centre in Montreal, which has pioneered a leading treatment, are cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy that would leave them sterile. But some are career women from as far away as Hong Kong who want to delay motherhood.

Fertility is a huge business in Canada. A study published in March revealed that at least 17 per cent of Canadian couples - roughly 700,000 couples - suffer from infertility during their childbearing years.

Funding for fertility treatments varies by province. Ontario, for example, pays only for fertility treatments for women with blocked fallopian tubes. The majority of couples, who suffer from other fertility complications, are left holding the bill.

So far, Dr. Michael has frozen the eggs of three fertile women, all of whom were given the procedure without charge.

Renée Hegi, a 32-year-old nurse who has worked with Dr. Michael in the past, said yesterday that she is considering the procedure herself.

The mother of a two-year-old boy, Ms. Hegi saw her marriage dissolve shortly after her child's birth. But she would like to have another baby when the right partner comes along.

"I think it's awesome to have the option," she said. "This takes the pressure off."