US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has revealed she has decided to freeze her eggs, and has shared her first steps in the process on social media.

The 36-year-old New York Democrat posted the clips on Sunday, hours before telling ABC News’s This Week programme that she had not “ruled out the possibility” of running for president.

In the clips, Ocasio-Cortez shows herself taking an injection and talks through tips she has learnt, before answering questions about costs, clinical procedures, storage and how fertility care works under what she calls the US’s “broken” medical system.

In her later interview with ABC, she explained that she wanted to “normalise” conversations about the process.

She said it was important “especially in this political environment”.

“This administration is denying reproductive care to women across the country, from abortion rights to the ability to carry out a healthy pregnancy,” she said. “I think it’s important for us as leaders to have these conversations and share these processes,” she added.

In her earlier social media post, she said she wanted to share the information even though there was a “political risk” in doing so.

Ocasio-Cortez rarely appears on the Sunday political shows and in her conversation with ABC’s Jonathan Karl, she appeared to go further than before at indicating she may run for higher office.

When pressed on whether she was open to a White House run and whether it was a realistic prospect, she said: “I haven’t ruled out the possibility and I’m very humbled to the tremendous amount of support out there.”

But the focus must remain on the midterm elections in November and not on “individual aspirations or plans”, she added.

The congressional elections are held every two years and fall in the middle of the president’s four-year term of office.

They are due to be held in early November. Votes will be cast for all 435 seats in the US House of Representatives, while a third of the 100 seats in the Senate will also be up for grabs.