There is an obvious gender inequality in reproduction, since men are able to reproduce at much older ages than women. Now that the cryopreservation of oocytes for age-related fertility decline is considered acceptable, ‘social egg freezing’ has become a popular subject and demand for the procedure has increased rapidly. Oocyte cryopreservation has been described as a ‘breakthrough for reproductive autonomy’ and‘emancipation’ for women. However, there are various reasons for which women may wish to delay motherhood, for example to focus on their career, to find a suitable partner or because they simply do not feel ‘ready’. An increasing number of women are postponing motherhood, resulting in rising numbers experiencing childlessness which they had not necessarily intended. Oocyte cryopreservation can give women the ability to make more reproductive choices; to decide when and with whom they wish to have children.
The age-related fertility decline experienced by women, which accelerates after the age of 35, is well-known. This decline is largely attributable to a decrease in follicular number and oocyte quality. If older women do conceive, they are at a significantly higher risk of foetal chromosomal abnormalities and foetal loss. Reproductive potential can be extended by the use of eggs preserved at younger age.
The use of younger oocytes can reduce the risk of foetal loss and aneuploidies (geneticabnormalities of Down’s syndrome in the child) associated with ageing oocytes. The use of cryopreserved, autologous oocytes also allows the mother to have her geneticallyown child that could not be achieved through oocyte donation, and will provide a higher chance of pregnancy than the use of standard IVF at an older age.
The eggs are retrieved by the same process of IVF. After retrieval of the eggs, the eggs are frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees centigrade for 5 to 10 years. Whenever the patent wants to have a child, she can come to us. we will thaw the eggs, fertilise them with her partners sperm and transfer the embryos back into the womb, to achieve a pregnancy. Minimum 8 to 12 eggs mature (M2) eggs need to be frozen , to get a good chance of pregnancy in the future . If there are less eggs retrieved in the first attempt, a second attempt may be needed .
We are the amongst the earliest to start social egg freezing in the world in 2007 . In India we were the first to do this. WE have frozen eggs of many celebrity patients including many film actresses, models, film producers , doctors(including gynecologists), lawyers and many other professionals . Our first social egg freezing patient ex Miss world Diana Haydon froze her eggs in 2007 and subsequently had three babies through her frozen eggs 8/10 years later . Another celebrity person Miss Ekta Kapoor also froze her eggs with us and then subsequently had a child though frozen egg. We normally don’t disclose the named of our patients. However the above two patients have publicly declared this in the press and hence we have taken their names here . We have many leading people from the film world, professionals etc who have frozen their eggs with our group .
