How Single Ladies Now Preserve Their Eggs To Make Future Babies
This might come as a lot of shock to a lot of people to know
that women can actual freeze their eggs for the future purpose of making
babies. This technique which is more common in advanced countries is also
gradually finding its feet in Nigeria too.
A couple of some Fertility Centers in the country now offer
this service for women who want to preserve their egg. It’s all started when
the IVF techniques started gaining ground in the country as more and more
couples started embracing this technique. At this point, the fertility centers
get an egg donor who will donate her eggs to be fertilized by her husband’s
sperm. Along the line, the demand was on the increase since fertility
challenged couple saw the success of this technique and this created the need
for an egg bank.
Apparently, this also opened the eyes of some of this
fertility centers that they could freeze egg for those who might also need it
in the nearest future. Moreover, for years now, there have been decline in
fertility with increasing female age. Unlike men who make sperm throughout
life, women are born with all of their eggs. This number reduces throughout
life and consequently a woman's chance of being able to conceive decreases as
her age increases, especially after the age of 35.
In previous generations this age decline and likely
development of infertility was avoided by childbearing early, today for many
reasons a woman/couple may chose to delay childbearing for their careers or
until they find the chosen ideal partner. While the advent of in-vitro
fertilization (IVF) certainly will assist tremendously in improving chances of
pregnancy, this too can be limited by age and egg quality, with sometimes the only
option being consideration of the use of donor eggs. And with the recent
scientific advance of fast freeze technology called vitrification, it is now
possible to preserve an unfertilized egg through vitrification. BOLA AKINBOADE
brings you the details of latest Fertility Technique, and why more single
ladies are embracing it.
What Is Egg Freezing
Egg freezing is a procedure that gives women an opportunity
to preserve their fertility for health and social reasons. Cryopreservation
(ovarian egg freezing) is a progressive procedure that enables women to freeze
healthy eggs to preserve fertility until they are ready to try for a child. The
treatment may be offered free to cancer patients to preserve their ovaries
prior to treatment, and as an elective service for financial, health or
personal reasons.
Often done for sperm and extra embryos produced during IVF,
cryopreservation is the process of freezing materials so that they can be used
at a later time. Cryopreservation is a fairly simply process usually involving
liquid nitrogen to freeze the sperm, embryos or eggs. These materials are then
stored in special freezers until they are needed, which can be anywhere from
months to years after they are frozen.
Why Eggs Are More Difficult Than Sperm?
Officially known as oocyte cryopreservation, freezing eggs
is a much more difficult procedure than freezing either sperm or embryos.
Women’s eggs are made up of tissue that is much more delicate and likely to be
damaged during the thawing process. Unlike sperm, which are small cells with
low water content, a woman’s eggs are fairly large cells with high water
content. As a result, the eggs are more susceptible to forming damaging ice
crystals during the freezing process which can make fertilization at a later
date nearly impossible.
Another issue with freezing eggs is the quality of the eggs.
Because female egg quality declines with age, the older the woman, the poorer
health her eggs are likely to be in. Since an egg already has a high chance of
being damaged during cryopreservation, freezing eggs that are likely to be in
poor health only serves to further decrease your chances of successfully
becoming pregnant later. Moreover, an older woman may not be able to produce
enough quality eggs to make cryopreservation worthwhile.
How The Process Works
Freezing eggs is a rather involved process. First, you are
given injectable fertility drugs daily to stimulate the egg production. Just
before the person is set to ovulate, the eggs will be retrieved in the same
type of procedure that is used for IVF. Once the eggs have been harvested, they
will be frozen with liquid nitrogen and stored in special freezers until you
decide to use them. A newer technique involves flash-freezing the eggs.
While the majority of the process is still the same, the
eggs are instantly frozen rather than slowly frozen. The main benefit to this
process is that it avoids the formation of ice crystals.
When pregnancy is desired, the eggs are thawed and
fertilized via IntraCytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). Resulting embryos are
then transferred to the uterus. However, statistics from this latest technique
reveals that 99% of eggs preserved by vitrification survive and 92% fertilise
successfully.
Who Is Egg Freezing For?
Previously most attempts at egg freezing were for medical
reasons, but however with new successful technique, it is likely that social
egg freezing has become by far the most common reasons as an insurance against
infertility. Therefore, the two primary reasons why a woman will opt to avail
of egg freezing include;
Medical – Women with endometriosis, ovarian cysts, or those
who are concerned about premature ovarian failure or early menopause. Also, if
a patient is diagnosed with cancer, she is likely to require chemotherapy or
radiotherapy. These treatments will often result in infertility. If she has
frozen her eggs prior to her treatment, she has a chance to use these in the
future. Whereas in cases without egg storage prior to e.g. chemotherapy, the
chances of conception is greatly reduced or in many cases these treatments will
lead to complete ovarian failure offering no chance of a child.
Social – this refers to where a woman elects to preserve her
fertility by opting to freeze eggs when she is young for use later in the event
she cannot conceive if or when she tries to have a baby.
When Is The Ideal Time To Freeze The Eggs
Since many medical treatments can cause infertility, egg
cryopreservation was one way to preserve a woman’s fertility. But,
increasingly, healthy women are choosing the procedure to stop the clock on
their fertility while they focus on life, education and careers.
Nowadays, most women can have access to this technology. As
a result, women who are still young and healthy but know that they would like
to wait until they are in their late 30s before starting their families have
also begun to take advantage of this technology. The ideal time to freeze the
eggs is when a lady is in her 20s or early 30s. Egg freezing after 37 is
usually not recommended as both the quantity and number of a woman’s eggs
decline rapidly around then. The age of a woman at the time of egg collection
is the biggest determinant of a successful outcome to egg freezing, and any
subsequent chance of pregnancy and live birth.
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