There has been a growing demand for egg freezing among the recent generation as everyone has come to terms with the benefits and flexibility it offers.Though, people still have many concerns about its viability and the whole process. Through this article, let’s try to dispel most of the concerns or questions.

Egg freezing is the process of removal of eggs from a woman’s ovaries, freezing them and then storing them at sub-zero temperatures for later use. The first frozen egg baby was born in 1986, since then there has been an enormous refinement in freezing techniques.

Who should consider egg freezing?

-      The women who need to consider egg freezing are women with cancer – As they may be preparing for chemotherapy, because chemotherapy can damage the ovary irreversibly. And if they haven’t had any children yet, then it could be worthwhile considering egg freezing.

-      Women with endometriosis - Endometriosis is a disease which can damage the ovary extensively and cause loss of normal ovarian tissue and eggs and some of them are adviced surgery and before surgery it may be worthwhile freezing their eggs.

-      Now more often however are women who are unmarried and haven’t found the right partner yet and both married and unmarried women who choose to postpone a pregnancy either because of career, financial or social circumstances.

What is the ideal age to consider egg freezing?

It makes sense to freeze eggs in your late twenties or early thirties because that is the time when egg quality is very good.

Let’s look at an example, if a woman has to conceive naturally at the age of 40 years, her chance of success would be about 5%. But if this very same lady did choose to freeze her eggs at 30 years and have the baby at 40 years, her chance of having a pregnancy would be 40-50%.

Hence, basically late twenties or early thirties is probably the best time.

How many eggs would I need to freeze?

If a lady less than 35 years old, manages to freeze 15 eggs of hers, then her likelihood of pregnancy would be somewhere around 80%.

Whereas if she froze 8 to 10 eggs then her likelihood of pregnancy would be around 40-50%. If the lady manages to get 24 eggs, then her likelihood of pregnancy would be above 90%. This is of course assuming that the male partner is normal, and the eggs have been fertilised with good sperm.

Obviously, women who are greater than 40 years need to have more egg numbers for a better chance at achieving pregnancy.

Is there a way to determine how many eggs you’re likely to get?

There is a test called AMH. AMH is Anti-Müllerian hormone and it is a blood test. It can be done at any time in the cycle and it gives an idea of what your ovarian reserve is. It cannot be predicted what the exact number of eggs that you will get but we will be able to tell if the AMH value is normal or not.

AMH does not give us any idea about egg quality and the only determinant of egg quality is your age.

What is the process of obtaining eggs?

The ovaries have follicles within them. Follicles are fluid filled sacs which contain the eggs. And you tend to have a larger number of follicles when you have a good ovarian reserve and a lesser number of follicles in women with poorer ovarian reserve.

In a natural cycle, a group of follicles begin to grow. But only one grows big as there is only enough hormone to support the growth of just one follicle. This follicle becomes the dominant follicle. And roundabout the middle of the cycle it tends to ovulate and release the egg.

In an artificial cycle or with ovarian stimulation, injections are started on Day 2 of the woman’s period. These injections are given so that every follicle can be rescued which is destined to grow in that particular cycle. Then we get the good group of eggs growing and when these follicles reach the desired size, which usually takes about 10 days of injections, then the trigger injection is given.

Now the trigger injection helps the eggs within the follicles to mature and then one day later egg pickup is performed. The process is done under sedation, so you will be asleep during the procedure. It is a simple procedure, takes about 5 or 10 minutes.

And it has minimal side effects.  If you wish to know more about the procedure you can contact us at Jananam Fertility Centre.

 How are these eggs frozen?

In 1986, the process used to freeze eggs was called slow freezing. But the survival of eggs with that process was poor.

Now there is an amazing technology called vitrification which is instant freezing and the survival rate of eggs after thawing is greater than 90%.

‍Is pregnancy guaranteed if I use frozen eggs?

There is no guarantee that you will get pregnant with the eggs you’ve frozen. It depends first of all on the age of freezing, it depends on thenumber of eggs which you’ve frozen and also depends on your partner’s sperms ample. And finally, the uterus must be normal and receptive to the embryo for proper implantation.

To understand this better, it’s important to understand how the ovaries work and know that eggs don’t last forever.

A baby girl is born with about 1-2 million eggs in her ovaries and by the time she reaches puberty, she has about 300-500 thousand eggs left.            The decline is consistent and steady thereafter. And after 35 years, there is a steep decline in egg number and at40 years very few eggs are left. This decrease is not consistent or the same indifferent women. And each women tends to loose eggs at a different pace. After35 years, there is also a marked decrease in egg quality.

Women who are greater than 35 years may take a longer time to conceive, are at higher risk of having a miscarriage. And also, some of them do have babies with Down’s syndrome. The loss in egg quality and quantity is both inevitable and irreversible.

Now, when you look at egg freezing, if a woman chooses to have egg freezing at 28 years and then chooses to have an embryo made and transfer at 38years. The egg retains its quality. Hence, egg freezing is basically a means of circumventing the effect of age on the quality of the eggs.

 Conclusion

Egg freezing is not a panacea for pregnancy postponement. There is no guarantee that you will get pregnant with these eggs. There is no guarantee that you will need these eggs, you may conceive even before using them. And also, pregnancies at a later age, that is around 40 years can have added complications such as rise in blood pressure, diabetes, increased caesarean section.

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