Dr Richa Sharma and Dr Samit Sekhar
To suggest that most women are choosing to delay child-bearing and giving priority to their own careers is a tribute to change in the patriarchal system in India and also suggests that women have an incredible level of control over their lives
Introduction-
First the answer to this is – yes you can freeze your eggs and plan pregnancy later !!
That’s the miracle of modern Science Oocyte cryopreservation or vitrification (egg freezing) is a rapidly advancing, breakthrough technology in which a woman’s eggs (oocytes) are extracted, frozen and stored (oocyte bank). Later, when she is ready to become pregnant, the eggs can be thawed, fertilized, and transferred to the uterus as embryos after fertilizing with the Partner”s sperm
It is estimated that there are over one million frozen embryos worldwide and most will be discarded. Attempts at freezing unfertilized eggs, eventually thawing them, fertilizing them with the husbands’ sperm and then transferring the embryos derived from these frozen eggs to the uterus resulting in a successful pregnancy have been tried for years.
Pioneers- Dr. Cline’s Christian in collaboration with Dr. Jeffery Boldt developed a new method for storing frozen unfertilized human eggs for future use.
Who all can undertake Oocyte and Ovarian Freezing ?
Improve the efficiency of IVF
Alternative to embryo freezing
Oocyte preservation for patients with ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome
Oocyte donation programme ( for quarantine purpose)
The treatment of congenital infertility disorders
Prevent fertility loss through surgery
Treatment of premature ovarian failure (POF)
Also in cancer patients prior to exposure to chemotherapy or radiotherapy(fertility Cryopreservation)
In career oriented females who want to plan family later due to other commitments
In case male partner not available or not able to give semen sample (ED/refuses)
In cases of TFFesp when repeated risk is there- half of the oocytes can be cryopreserved to find out the reason for TFF(as to whether egg or sperm)
Where it is done ?
It done in various IVF centres which have the required skills and facilities for the same.Oocyte cryopreservation is no more experimental/research modality.It is now routinely done in indicated cases
How it is done ?
In this after baseline workup, you will be given the egg forminginjections(Gonadotropins) from day 2/day 3 of your periods and once the eggs are mature, they are taken out and the best possible eggs will be frozen for the future use.
Freezing duration is as per ICMR recommendations from 1 to 5 years Results-Recovery of eggs on thawing depends on quality of eggs at time of freezing.Even recovery rate upto 80 percent has been mentioned
(The authors are IVF Consultant Delhi NCR and Executive Director KIC Hyderabad)
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