Melanie's latest for The New York Post:

On my 50th birthday earlier this month, I woke up and breathed a sigh of relief. I’m not a mother and will never be a mother, despite my deepest desires and well-meaning people who assured me well into my 40s that there was still a way.

By age 45, I had lost the will. I couldn’t have a baby because I couldn’t find a man with whom I wanted to spend my life. So, as I reached the end of my fertile years, I packed up my fervent hopes for a family and moved on.

.... I know single women just a few years younger than me who took advantage of the opportunity. Now in their late 40s, many still remain single. And their eggs — and lives — remain frozen as they vacillate in indecision. Should they have a child with a man they don’t love? Should they become single mothers? Should they keep paying the storage fees? (Egg storage can cost about $1,000 a year in New York City after a retrieval fee of approximately $10,000 per cycle, expenses that are rarely covered by insurance.)

More at NYPost.com