Have you put your eggs in the bank yet? – Egg freezing: The necessity of an hour!

For a woman, the most fertile years are in her early to mid-twenties. As you grow older your fertility potential declines. The decline in fertility speeds up after the age of 35.

Egg freezing is a way of preserving a woman’s fertility, so that she can plan for a baby when she thinks it is right.

Who should do egg freezing?

• Before starting cancer treatments like radiotherapy or chemotherapy
• If you are at risk of premature menopause
• If you haven’t found a right partner yet
• If you are not ready to start a family due to career or financial issues

Steps:

• Have a consultation with a fertility doctor to check your ovarian reserve by ultrasound scanning and certain blood tests. Do a baseline hormonal work up.
• Once you are ready, the process is generally started on second day of your period.
• You will receive daily injections of hormones to grow your eggs for around 10 to 12 days. You will visit the clinic every 3-4 days for ultrasound scanning to check the number & size of your eggs. After an optimum size is reached you will be given an injection to release these eggs.
• Egg collection happens under short general anesthesia for around 10 to 15 minutes.
• Your eggs will then be frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen at the fertility clinic.

Risk:

By and large egg freezing is a safe procedure and happens without significant complications. In rare cases bleeding can happen during or after the procedure. Also a peculiar condition called ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome (OHSS) can happen if more than 15-20 eggs start developing in the ovaries. This is rare with the protocols and injections used in current practice.

Success rates:

The success of pregnancy from frozen eggs depends upon the age of the woman when they were frozen & the egg quality. So if you are planning to store your eggs, earlier the better.

Cost:

Varies from country to country & from clinic to clinic.

How long can the eggs be frozen?

Depends upon law of the land where the fertility center is located.

Dr. Preeti Yogesh Bhandari MRCPI (Ireland), MS, DNB, MICOG, DRM (Germany), Specialist Gynecology and fertility, Abu Dhabi .