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Sparkle (1)
Putting eggs, embryos, or ovarian tissue on ice has been a hot topic for the last few weeks. Numerous articles have popped up, discussing these options and holding them out as a solution for those who are not quite ready to build their family, or who need to protect their family building options due to fertility-damaging medical treatments. The articles run the gamut from "career women" to a two-year-old in New York about to experience chemotherapy.
British Women Considering Freezing Their Eggs Rather Than Using Them Now
Time reports that a study of 200 women found that, "half of those pursuing degrees in sports or education would consider freezing their eggs to give them the option to delay starting a family, while more than 8 out of 10 women pursuing a medical degree said that they would do so." A second study in Belgium found that half of the 15 women interviewed would freeze their eggs in order to take the pressure off of finding a partner in time to utilize the woman's fertility.
I'm not really shocked at the results. Certainly, as IVF has become commonplace, attitudes surrounding IVF have relaxed and many see the idea of egg freezing as a great leap forward in allowing women the same gamete safeguards given to men, especially when it comes to preserving fertility prior to undergoing medical treatments that would impair fertility. Men have been able to freeze and thaw their sperm for years, but it has only been in recent years that scientists have been successful in freezing eggs.
Which opens many more doors than simply freezing embryos.
Prior to recent years, scientists had great success with freezing embryos -- in other words, eggs that had already been fertilized. But this didn't provide a wide-range of options for women who weren't in a partnership. Those wanting to preserve their fertility -- either due to career, relationship status, or medical treatments -- needed to either pair their eggs with donor sperm or use the sperm of someone they may be in a relationship with at the moment. Egg freezing releases women from only being able to utilize their gametes with a donor, and provides the same options afforded to men.
The study was additionally discussed by Fox News, which points out that at this point, there is more discussion than action:
Gorthi said none of the medical students in the study had frozen eggs, that the youngest woman to freeze eggs in her clinic was 28, and that it was most commonly requested by women in their late 30s, whose fertility had already started to decline.
Reuters reports that over half the fertility clinics in the United States are offering egg-freezing options, though many do so with restrictions:
The researchers found that a third restrict the option to cancer patients or as an alternative to freezing leftover embryos for women attempting in vitro fertilization. And while two-thirds of those clinics that offer it will do so electively, no more than a third will provide it to women over 40 years old.
A fairly detailed article in the Daily Mail also explores the study, pointing out many of the fallacies the general public holds about the reach of IVF.
Creating Embryos for Later Use
The Washington Post had a perky article about a couple who has created and frozen embryos because, after eight years of marriage (and in their early thirties), they still aren't ready financially to become parents. They state that their reason for delaying parenthood was that, "It was very important to us, though, that we first be financially stable enough to support them and give them plenty of parenting time."
Which is all well and good, but it begs the question how much money this couple believes they need to have in order to be ready to parent.
