(Yicai Global) Dec. 23 -- A single woman's lawsuit against a Chinese clinic that refused to let her use her frozen eggs, the first case of its kind in the country, entered trial earlier this week.

Proceedings began on Dec. 23 at the Chaoyang District People's Court in Beijing, where the 31-year-old woman, surnamed Xu, accuses the Capital Medical University-affiliated Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of infringing on her general right of personality.

The hospital claims that there are laws and regulations preventing it from providing human-assisted reproductive technology to help healthy single women, according to a spokesperson.

The case, which has been hotly debated by the country's netizens, is expected to last several months. Many online have shown support for Xu, though several lawyers have said her chances of winning are slim but her commendable courage could lead to the improvement of regulations.

Freezing eggs, or oocytes, is a common approach for women who want to preserve their reproductive cells as they age. They are able to retrieve the eggs when they want to give birth, which for many women in China is at an increasingly older age as they become more and more career-focused.

Wealthier women often opt to go overseas to cryopreserve their eggs, paying upwards of CNY100,000 (USD14,300) for the privilege, and some companies even offer the service as a perk for female employees.

Ctrip, the country's largest online travel agency, pledged last year that it would cover fees of between CNY100,000 and CNY2 million (USD) for mid- and senior-level female managers and offer an additional seven days of paid leave so they could use "cutting-edge technologies associated with pregnancies, including egg freezing."

Editor: James Boynton