It is thought that it is mainly used for women diagnosed with cancer to preserve their fertility before cancer treatment. Nowadays, it is used by women who want to postpone having children. It could be for a number of reasons - not having an ideal partner, pursuing education or career, caring for parents or just to take pressure off relationships.
Egg freezing should be considered particularly in cases of
Endometriosis , Dermoid cyst , surgery for benign ovarian tumors. Infections like tuberculosis Disease like Systemic lupus erythematosus where drugs cause decline in ovarian reserve , Fragile x syndrome , h/o early menopause in family
The optimal age to freeze eggs is 32-36, but any woman ages 30-40 should consider egg freezing if they plan to delay a family. The number of eggs a woman needs is dependent upon her age, but age is only one predictor and not every 35 year old or 40 year old are the same. Therefore, there is not necessarily an absolute upper age; although women less than and equal to 40 will have better success and studies have shown egg freezing is cost effective until age 38 Freeze your biological clock until the time is right for you!
A woman is born with one to two million immature oocytes (eggs) in her ovaries. Every month, a woman’s eggs grow as a cohort , one follicle (immature egg) becomes dominant and eventually ovulates, and the remainder of (non-dominant) follicles are lost through atresia. Thus, a woman will lose the majority of her eggs from atresia and not during ovulation. By taking IVF medication, the non-dominant follicles are “rescued” and not lost as they would be during atresia, and are collected for cryopreservation through egg retrieval. This process “rescues” follicles/eggs that would have otherwise been lost.
To stimulate the ovaries, injectable medications are required for an average of 10 to 12 days. While on medication, monitoring via ultrasound will typically be required 4 to 5 times Once stimulated follicles have developed into mature eggs, which usually occurs after two weeks, you will undergo an egg retrieval
With the exception of your monitoring appointments, which will occur around 4 times for roughly two weeks, your work life will be uninterrupted. If you undergo a retrieval during the week, you will need to take off one day of work for the procedure. Weekend egg retrieval procedures are available, but precise timing of an egg retrieval is based on follicle development
Most women are nervous about the injections, then pleasantly surprised at how small and simple they are. During the egg retrieval you will be placed under sedation for the length of the procedure, which will take 15-30 minutes. Afterwards, you may experience bloating, spotting, and mild discomfort. Most women head back to work the next day.
The first step towards freezing your eggs is to make an appointment for a consultation. During that time you will discuss your medical history and the egg freezing procedure in more depth. Should you decide to move forward, blood tests and an ultrasound are performed. The purpose of these tests is to allow your doctor to tailor your stimulation protocol and counsel you about your individual success rates prior to starting medication for the egg freezing cycle
The success rate depends on the age of the woman and method of egg freezing. With younger women and the use of vitrification provide highest success rates. Recent research confirms the need to freeze around 12 eggs for women under 36 to have up to 50% chance of having a child later, compared to 7% to 10% for an older group of women with fewer eggs. The success rate reduces with age of eggs.
It not only offers an insurance policy but it is offers some women a chance of conceiving with their own eggs if they do not leave it too late.
During ivf treatments fertility drugs are administered to heighten your egg production. Follicles produced in this manner are then developed in laboratory until they are large enough for the extraction of the eggs. These eggs need to be kept at a low temperature. Therefore they are stored in liquid nitrogen thereby maintaining their fertility for as long as required. This process is called egg freezing.