Women warned not to freeze their eggs for social reasons

I wrote about this topic a few articles ago but wanted to share this one out of the UK with you. What are your thoughts?

Sharon
www.InfertilityAnswers.net

Women warned not to freeze their eggs for social reasons

William Fletcher
Progress Educational Trust
09 February 2009

The UK's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the British Fertility Society have released a joint statement expressing serious concerns about women who freeze their eggs for non-medical reasons such as pursuit of their career. The success rate for pregnancies involving eggs that were frozen is very low and babies conceived in this manner may be less healthy than those from fresh eggs.

'The image that's portrayed is that a woman in her late 20s or early 30s can establish a relationship 10 or 15 years later and then take the eggs out of the freezer, fertilize them with the partner's sperm and have the baby', says Professor Bill Ledger, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Sheffield University and a member of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA). 'The chance of a baby from a frozen egg with vitrification is less than 6 per cent per egg. By doing the egg freezing for social reasons, they are taking a huge gamble for their future', he added.

As well as low success rates Professor Ledger pointed out that babies that are born from frozen eggs could be less healthy than those conceived from fresh eggs and warned that: 'We should be very careful about performing medical procedures on healthy people'. He believes that is ethically questionable for women to freeze their eggs purely for 'lifestyle reasons' but added that it was legitimate, for example, for a young woman with cancer to have her eggs frozen before chemotherapy seriously damaged her potential to bear children.

The draft regulations to implement the Human Fertility and Embryology Act, as amended in relation to the storage of gametes, state that gametes (oocytes in this scenario) can only be stored for ten years. Unless during that period the person for whom the eggs are stored has, or is likely to develop, significant and premature infertility, this period cannot be extended. Egg freezing beyond this time at any of the 41 infertility clinics in the UK where this service is offered is therefore excluded for any non-medical reason.

Despite this time limit, 33 women chose to freeze their eggs for non-medical reasons in 2006, according to official figures from the HFEA. However, this figure more than doubled to 78 in 2007, even though the procedure is expensive at a cost of about £5,000.

Preserving Fertility: Egg Freezing 'Just In Case'

So I have a question....perhaps it will turn into several questions but that's how it goes with me.

I am wondering about this trend to have young women, albeit those who have the financial wherewithal, freeze their eggs way before they are even thinking of becoming mothers. I am all for getting the word out there to the girls and young women regarding the biological clock and educating everyone on what can affect fertility in general, however, I am uncertain of the push to freeze eggs for 'just in case'.

Just in case.....
You don't find Mr. Perfect before your clock stops ticking
Just in case.....
You catch a STD that makes you infertile
Just in case.....
You find out later in life you are infertile or have cancer or have a medical condition that effects your egg production

I am sure that there is a longer list but for those young women who are healthy now, will fear of their fertile future drive them into undergoing an egg retrieval and the yearly cost of keeping their precious DNA frozen? And after they become pregnant on their own will they have the emotional dilemma regarding their now 5 or 10 year old frozen eggs? Will those eggs be destroyed? Will these women now be asked to donate them? What about the woman who doesn't get pregnant on her own and wants to use her eggs....will she be able to even afford the IVF procedure? The medications? What will that option be like over the next decade? AND what happens when the frozen eggs don't result in a pregnancy? What then?

I told you that I may have more then one question.

I have a 13 year old daughter. She knows all about Egg Donation, Surrogacy, and IVF (At least as much as she may want to know) I have given her every vaccination, protected her from exposure of toxic materials (No smoking in OUR house, please!) and generally have given her the tools to keep herself safe. I am drawing the line at freezing her eggs. Because she is a healthy young teen, I see no need of it. If she is unfortunate and is found to have cancer or some other life threatening disease then I may encourage her to freeze her eggs at that time. But for young, healthy women, I think education and fertility awareness is a must. The rest? I am not so sure about.

Sharon LaMothe
www.InfertilityAnswers.net