With the progress in science, there have been many treatments developed to significantly improve the chances of conceiving a baby. These treatments include fertility drugs, hormonal drugs, or surgeries including in vitro fertilization (IVF). Adding up to the numerous methods that can improve the fertility rate in women is a method called egg freezing.
In modern times, when there’s much awareness about the procedure, many women opt for freezing their eggs between the ages of 20-30 to increase their biological cycle for a variety of reasons, be it career or emotional stability. Here’s everything that you need to know about egg freezing.
What is Egg freezing?
Medically known as mature oocyte cryopreservation, egg freezing is a method through which women’s chances to get pregnant in the future can be saved. This happens when eggs harvested from a woman’s ovaries are frozen unfertilized and stored for later use. Using Vitro fertilization, a frozen egg can be combined with sperm in a lab and implanted in the uterus to increase the chance of pregnancy. During an interaction with HT Lifestyle, Senior Consultant in Fertility and IVF services, Dr. Priti Gupta from Delhi explained that frozen eggs deliver the same results when it comes to delivering healthy babies.
She said, “Egg freezing, sometimes referred to as human oocyte cryopreservation, is a procedure used to remove and safely store woman’s eggs. This enables women to act as their own egg donors at a later time when natural conception may be more difficult or unlikely. Whether the eggs are frozen or fresh, they deliver the same results in terms of delivering healthy babies.”
When should egg freezing be done?
According to the expert, the pregnancy rate increases and are considered best when eggs are frozen before the age of 35. She explained the term called Vitrification, which allows more than 85% of frozen eggs to survive the warming up method. Hence, it is ideal to freeze ideally 20-30 eggs when they are still of prime quality to increase reproductive flexibility in the future.
What is clinical egg freezing?
According to Dr. Priti Gupta, eggs can be frozen for either clinical or social purposes. When it comes to clinical, the process becomes helpful if a woman is undergoing medical challenges example battling cancer that requires the use of radiation and chemotherapy. In addition to this, cases when women have a family history of early menopause. She said, “Clinical Egg Freezing is considered for women going through medical issues such as cancer that requires undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatment, women having a low ovarian reserve, or having a history of early menopause in the family, etc.”
What is social egg freezing?
This is performed when a woman opts to freeze her eggs for non-medical reasons such as career growth, emotional and financial stability, and more. The doctor stated, “Social Egg Freezing implies that a woman can preserve her eggs for non-medical reasons, considering her career growth, and studies, not able to find a perfect partner, and is not ready emotionally or financially.”
