With a growing concern of infertility, egg or oocyte freezing is a powerful choice for women and couples looking at preserving their future fertility. If you are a young woman who is contemplating having a baby at a later date, I would urge you to consider this option. Let us examine the reasons why women would like to preserve their fertility for later. Some of these reasons relate to our social environment and lifestyle. Today’s career woman faces a lot of work-related pressures resulting in procrastination. Climbing up the social ladder can result in falling off the cliff of reproduction. The constraints circle around not finding the right man, delaying marriage or even delaying childbearing after getting married. There are other circumstances which call for fertility preservation. The unfortunate event of a woman facing a diagnosis of cancer may result in her losing her reproductive potential due to chemotherapy. However, there is hope of regaining and restoring the ability to enjoy motherhood once she is cured and in remission.
Why egg freezing?
Freezing your eggs is a convenient way to open up your options of starting a family in the future. It allows you far more control over your fertility – especially as both the number of your eggs and their quality decline with age. A women’s biological clock is most precise between the ages of 24 to 34. That actually is the right time to start freezing eggs.
Is egg freezing for you?
Please consider this option if there is a family history of premature menopause – where a mother or sister have stopped ovulating and menstruating before the age of 40. The other indications are if you want children one day, but are currently more focused on your career. Women who are not yet in a relationship should be more proactive about preserving their fertility. Women with recurrent ovarian cysts and endometriosis should also consider this option.
Medical conditions like sickle cell anemia or autoimmune diseases can result in a diminishing ovarian reserve.
In the unfortunate event of you undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy due to cancer please talk to your oncologist who will connect you with our team.
What are the steps involved in egg freezing?
In this procedure, the woman receives hormonal stimulation. When the eggs look mature on ultrasound, oocyte retrieval is carried out. The eggs are graded for their quality and maturity and frozen by the process of vitrification at -180 0 C. The eggs are then stored in cryocontainers within the IVF laboratory. They are labeled using RFID technology to prevent any mix up of an individual’s eggs.
There is excellent recovery of oocytes after warming. The rate of forming embryos is as good as with fresh eggs.
Am I done with one cycle of egg freezing?
It is also important to note that for freezing to be successful between 15 to 30 eggs should be frozen. This may require more than one cycle of IVF.
Also, the chances of successful egg freezing go down as the age of the woman increases. Hence it is important to freeze your eggs before the age of 37.
What is the best age to freeze eggs?
The best age for freezing eggs is from the mid 20’s to the mid 30’s. It is also important to note that for freezing to be successful between 15 to 30 eggs should be frozen as after the age of 35, the egg reserve & the quality of the eggs show a decline.
This chart tells you how many eggs should be frozen at a particular age for these to translate into pregnancy later.
|
Age (years) |
Number of eggs to be frozen |
|
25 |
10 |
|
30 |
15-20 |
|
35 |
25-30 |
|
40 |
30 & above |
Women who freeze their eggs should also be aware that although due care is given at the time of freezing or vitrification, there is a small possibility that all eggs may not thaw well or may not fertilize later.
What is Ovarian Cortex Cryopreservation (OTC)?
OTC is a special procedure to preserve the reproductive potential of women afflicted with cancer and facing chemotherapy. OTC is a recent addition to IVF. In this procedure bits or strips of the outer portion of the ovaries are frozen. This procedure is particularly useful for women who need to preserve their eggs & ovaries for future use. When a woman who is afflicted with cancer needs to start chemotherapy soon, it does not give the fertility specialist the 2 weeks’ time that is required for hormonal stimulation of the ovaries in order freeze eggs or embryos.
Young women who are suffering from different types of cancer such as breast cancer, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Sarcoma, Bone cancer, some types of Leukemia & severe autoimmune conditions can benefit from this procedure.
For the procedure to be successful there has to be close coordination between the oncologist, the IVF specialist, the embryologist, the counsellor & the family of the woman. A Laparoscopy is performed and a portion of the ovary is excised. The ovarian tissue is then sent to the embryology laboratory where it is processed by making fine strips. This tissue has thousands of immature eggs, some of which can be vitalized either in the laboratory by a process of In vitro maturation or the ovarian tissue can be frozen. These are then frozen by the technique of slow freezing in special devices or containers at -180°C.
Although this technology is recent, globally many center’s including ours have started offering this for young women who have been diagnosed with cancer and who want to have children later or once they are cured.
