Facebook and Apple are now the first major employers to cover the cost of egg freezing for their female employees, NBC News reported.

The two companies will now give up to $20,000 in benefits to help their employees pay for infertility treatments, including freezing their egg cells and sperm donors. The goal of this program is to help women to focus on their careers without sacrificing their chances of having children should they decide to have them.

"With notoriously male-dominated Silicon Valley firms competing to attract top female talent, the coverage may give Apple and Facebook a leg up among the many women who devote key childbearing years to building careers," said the NBC News report.

Facebook has just started to offer reimbursement payments for egg freezing, while Apple's similar benefits will start on January next year. This program aims to improve employee benefits and to attract new hires, especially women, for the male-dominated Silicon Valley companies.

An article from Business Insider stated that according to scientific studies, the process of egg freezing is highly successful.

"Known as oocyte cryopreservation, egg freezing is a process by which a woman extracts and stores her eggs so that they can be reinserted into her uterus at a later date, allowing her to have children at a time when she might otherwise be infertile," Business Insider explained.

Fertility rates of women who had their eggs frozen are at par with those who have them fresh. USA Today said that doctors now use a quick-freeze process called vitrification that better preserves eggs. 

"The period during which women approach declining fertility is seen as prime work years for women hoping to advance in their careers, and many professional women consider the process a means of hitting pause on their desire to have a family," Business Insider added.

Seattle Times noted that the program, started by Facebook and Apple, could benefit not only woman employees but also "gay and lesbian couples who want to use a surrogate or a sperm donor to have a baby, or heterosexual couples who incur in vitro fertilization costs not covered by insurance."

Dr. Alan Copperman, a fertility specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital, said that other companies should follow Apple and Facebook's example, said Seattle Times.

"Because it's the right thing to do and it's going to send a signal that women's health should be a priority. It's telling women they have the opportunity to put off child bearing and focus on their careers. (And) not make decisions based on certain reproductive limits women have," Copperman was quoted as saying.