Women today are planning to have children later in life. The egg freezing process enables women to delay pregnancy until a later stage. This process is known as oocyte cryopreservation. Society and patterns in childbirth may alter. However, the biological realities of fertility continue to be the same. Most women enter menopause in their late 40s or early 50s. In the years before menopause, a woman’s fertility reduces. Conceiving a child is not as simple in later years as it is for a younger woman. Women who are considering freezing their eggs should be aware that successful pregnancies are less common with frozen eggs than with fresh eggs. However, the use of frozen eggs can offer hope of conceiving in the future.
About the egg freezing process
To start the egg freezing process, your doctor will usually need you to get hormone injections for 8-10 days to arouse your ovaries and produce multiple fertile eggs. Once you have produced adequate fertile eggs, extraction will happen. Transvaginal ultrasound aspiration is the process through which your physician will get the eggs. It takes approximately fifteen to twenty minutes to retrieve multiple eggs, only necessitating conscious anesthesia.
The doctor will freeze the eggs using either of the two methods: vitrification or slow freezing.
- Vitrification is rapidly freezing the embryos. A much higher concentration of cryoprotectants is used, but as the embryos are frozen fast, they do not have time to form ice crystals.
- Slow freezing the process immerses the eggs in a secure chamber, progressively lowering the temperature to slow their internal activity. A minimal amount of cryoprotectants, acting as shields against ice crystal formation within the cells, is also employed.
Know the benefits of frozen embryo transfer
Many benefits are there for freezing eggs, some of which are as follows:
- Independence for Women
As you can freeze the eggs without fertilization, this offers women autonomy and control over their reproductive options. One of the pros of freezing eggs is that women can preserve their fertility independently—whether they have a spouse or not. As women may choose to delay pregnancy for numerous reasons, freezing your eggs offers you more options in the long run.
- No Sperm Required
Possibly one of the key advantages of freezing eggs vs. freezing embryos is that egg freezing does not need sperm. This is a perfect option for single women, women in the midst of seeking a sperm donor, or women who are not sure if their current partner is the co-parent they are searching for.
- Easier to Discard
Facing the choice between egg freezing and embryo freezing requires pondering the fate of these biological materials should you decide against using them. Discarding embryos, particularly for single individuals or couples with strong beliefs, can spark a moral quandary and may even clash with certain religious doctrines. Unfertilized eggs, however, might feel like a less emotionally charged option to discard, as their potential to result in a pregnancy hinges entirely on fertilization. In essence, the moral weight and legal restrictions surrounding embryo disposal compared to the relative ease of letting go of unfertilized eggs add another layer of complexity to this already personal decision.
How long does egg freezing last?
Most women will store their eggs for five to ten years. But healthy babies are born from eggs that were frozen for well over a decade.
End Note
Egg freezing process may be an option if you want to have a baby in the future, but would prefer to postpone it for a few years. Women who wish to postpone childbearing due to cancer therapy, advancing age with no male partner, or those who wish to postpone having a child to age over 35 years should think about egg freezing as an option to guard their future fertility. One of the main benefits of frozen embryo transfer is that it preserves all viable embryos through embryo freezing, making it simpler to select single embryo transfer and thus significantly decreasing the possibility of multiple gestations and the associated health risks.