Fertility Preservation – should I do it?

More and more women delaying having children, with many now opting to place their biological clocks on hold and freeze their eggs. In our busy, career oriented world, a woman may find herself reaching her mid-thirties, not in a relationship, or simply is not yet ready to have children. In such case, having her eggs frozen provides a peace of mind in delaying motherhood.

When is the best time to have it done?

A woman is born with a predetermined number of eggs, which are depleted over her lifetime. It has been found that by the age a woman is 30 she loses 88% of her eggs. By the age of 40 only 3% left of the two million eggs she was born with. Furthermore, the quality of a woman’s eggs deteriorates with age.

For this reason this procedure is not suitable for all women. It is a good option for women in late 20s to mid 30s, when the egg health is still high quality. However, in women 40 years old and over the quality and number of eggs has already deteriorated. At that point it may not be a practical option for as eggs do not survive or the ovarian egg reserve is too low.

Moreover, a new study has come out suggesting that the most cost-effective age to freeze eggs for a woman is 37 years old.

This report has taken all the important factors into the account: cost of the treatment, likelihood of using the frozen eggs, egg reserve and its quality, and chances of getting pregnant natually.

What does this process involve?

• Getting a GP referral to an IVF specialist.
• IVF specialist may undertake certain investigations to check where your fertility is in relation to the age. Some of the blood tests performed may include: woman’s hormonal profile, Anti-mullarelial-hormone (AMH), which assesses woman’s reserve of eggs left and Pelvic ultrasound to check the health of ovaries.  
• The egg freezing process: Women self-administer injections for 10 to 12 days of hormones to stimulate ovaries. Mature eggs produced are then retrieved on a particular day in a minor procedure by a specialist. This is done under sedation.
• The eggs are then frozen in a laboratory and stored.

How much does it cost?

Egg freezing to preserve fertility for social reasons is not covered by Medicare in Australia and can cost around $10 000. Women also have to understand that whilst the method is safe and effective nothing can be guaranteed 100%. Nevertheless, it gives women a choice to have insurance policy to have a family.

What’s our future prediction?

Fertility preservation is a growing area with lots of research looking into various ways of how to achieve egg freezing. Women are continuously increasing the age to have children, egg freezing is likely to become a routine part of women’s health in the future and even become more popular than IVF.

Article from: www.fertilitypharmacy.com.au