Women graduates are desperately freezing eggs because of a lack of eligible men

But do they need to be so worried?

Remember how Prince William once said you either come out of university a husband or an alcoholic? Yes, it was during a fundraising gala in New York City for St Andrews and he jokingly said: 'You leave St Andrews either married or an alcoholic'

Well, it seems that some people took this joke a little too literally - because a new study from Yale University has showed an ‘oversupply’ of graduate women ‘struggling to find a partner and desperate to preserve fertility.’

They’re calling it the ‘man deficit’ with countries, like the UK, having more women going to university than men.

Out of 150 women who had frozen eggs, 90% of them had done so because they said they were unable to find a partner.

The author of the study, Professor Marcia Inhorn said: ‘extensive media coverage suggests that educational and career ambitions are the main determinants of professional women’s fertility postponement, especially as they ‘lean in’ to their careers. Rather, they were desperately preserving their fertility beyond the natural end of their reproductive lives, because they were single without partners to marry.’

She also assumed that it’s because there were not ‘enough graduates for them.’ This insinuates that women are looking for educated men willing to commit to familial life - and keen to buy time while they do so.

And, the president of the British Fertility Society has also noticed a shift in British society with many university-educated women delaying getting pregnant. Professor Adam Balen told the BBC: ‘I certainly see more older women seeking fertility treatment than in the past.’

However, it's worth noting that women in their 40s are now the most fertile they've ever been and that women between the ages of 30-34 have the highest fertility rate or any other group as the average age of a first mother in the UK is now 30.3.

Of course, considering how expensive and emotionally and physically draining egg-freezing is, it’s not a decision to be taken lightly. The pregnancy rate from frozen embryos is in the 20s percent and it can cost up thousands of pounds.