Lately, developments in reproductive medication have allowed {couples} and people to create new paths towards changing into dad and mom by way of fertility preservation strategies comparable to egg freezing. Egg freezing gives the likelihood to pause the organic clock, offering peace of thoughts relating to timelines for household planning. Whether or not motivated by private circumstances, medical challenges, profession aspirations, gender affirmation, or just timing, egg freezing empowers folks with the selection to embrace parenthood when the time feels proper.
We spoke with Dr. Michael Guarnaccia, Medical Director at Pinnacle Fertility, Manhattan, to study all of the ins and outs of fertility preservation.
Understanding Egg Freezing
When contemplating fertility preservation choices, you’re prone to have many questions. How does it work? Am I too younger or too outdated? Is it secure? What does it entail? As we dive deeper into the method of egg freezing, we’ll have a look at the intricacies of fertility preservation, the know-how behind it, and extra. The thought of freezing your eggs might sound difficult, but it surely’s truly fairly simple! The method could be damaged down into just a few steps:
- Preparation: You’ll begin by seeing a health care provider at a fertility clinic and finishing ovarian reserve testing to get an concept of the variety of eggs you may have remaining in your ovaries. Then, you’ll begin taking medicines that can stimulate your ovaries to mature a number of eggs without delay. This medicine is similar because the hormones your physique usually produces to start ovulation, however at a higher degree. These medicines will sometimes be self-administered injections taken every day for 8-14 days relying in your physique’s response.
- Egg Assortment: 36 hours earlier than your scheduled egg retrieval, a “set off shot” will likely be administered to make sure your eggs are mature and prepared for assortment. Then, you’ll endure a minor process to gather the eggs out of your ovaries. Through the process, a health care provider will insert a needle by way of your vagina and into your ovaries to gather the mature eggs. The process is finished beneath anesthesia, which suggests you can be asleep for the entire thing.
- Cryopreservation: Your eggs are then quickly frozen utilizing a way referred to as vitrification. This technique of freezing is basically like hitting the pause button in your eggs once they’re at their finest, so everytime you’re prepared for being pregnant sooner or later, the standard of your eggs would be the identical because the day you froze them.
- Storage: Your preserved eggs are then saved in specialised cryogenic tanks that guarantee their viability till you might be prepared to make use of them to aim being pregnant.
Egg freezing is extensively thought-about secure. The method doesn’t influence your pure potential to change into pregnant or your menstrual cycle. The egg retrieval course of focuses on gathering eggs that may in any other case have been naturally misplaced throughout your regular menstrual cycle, so it doesn’t influence your ovarian reserve or impair your ovaries’ potential to provide eggs sooner or later.
After freezing your eggs, your physique will proceed its pure menstrual cycle and also you ought to be capable to conceive naturally for those who want to so long as every thing else is in good working order.
Are there any unwanted effects from the egg freezing course of?
As with every medical process, the egg freezing course of might trigger delicate unwanted effects. These unwanted effects come from the administration of medicine, the consequences of hormonal medicines used to stimulate the ovaries, and the process itself.
Remedy unwanted effects might embrace delicate bloating, temper swings, and discomfort on the injection web site. After the egg retrieval process, some folks might expertise cramping or recognizing and a few drowsiness, dizziness, or nausea whereas recovering from the anesthesia. Critical issues are uncommon, however they will happen, comparable to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), the place the ovaries change into swollen and painful. Gentle OHSS could be handled with relaxation and ache medicine, however extreme OHSS might require hospitalization to deal with extra extreme signs. Your care workforce will monitor your response to your medicines and procedures to attenuate dangers accordingly.
Who ought to think about freezing their eggs?
Many components might lead somebody to think about freezing their eggs. Amongst them could be age, medical necessity, and private relationships.
Though there may be technically no age restrict for this kind of fertility preservation, the best possibilities of profitable being pregnant occur with eggs frozen in an individual’s late 20s to early 30s. Fertility decreases over time, particularly relating to ovarian reserve and egg high quality. As you age, your ovarian reserve – a time period that refers back to the whole variety of eggs obtainable within the ovaries – naturally diminishes. This decline just isn’t solely concerning the amount of eggs but additionally their high quality. Egg high quality refers back to the potential of an egg to develop right into a wholesome embryo, and this too faces challenges with age. This may fluctuate as a result of genetics, environmental exposures over time, and different components.
By the mid to late 30s, the decline in each egg amount and high quality turns into extra pronounced. This is the reason it’s endorsed that people involved in fertility preservation pursue therapy sooner reasonably than later.
Some people might flip to fertility preservation strategies due to medical challenges comparable to most cancers. Remedies comparable to chemotherapy and radiation can completely destroy or injury ovarian reserve, and egg freezing can present a path to having a organic household after restoration. Folks with medical situations comparable to endometriosis and PCOS, and people with sure autoimmune issues requiring medicine that may influence fertility, may additionally profit from freezing their eggs.
Egg freezing may assist empower members of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood to construct their households by providing a pathway to organic parenthood. For transgender and non-binary people considering gender-affirming therapy, egg freezing offers the chance to protect fertility earlier than present process procedures that may have an effect on reproductive capabilities, comparable to hormone alternative remedy or gender-affirming surgical procedure.
Even after gender-affirming therapy, egg freezing generally is a priceless software, particularly for individuals who didn’t have the prospect to protect their eggs beforehand. Though sure therapies can influence fertility, many people nonetheless have viable eggs that may be retrieved and frozen. This course of opens doorways to varied family-building choices, together with IVF and gestational surrogacy.
What occurs once I need to use my eggs?
Whenever you’re able to construct or develop your loved ones, attaining being pregnant sometimes includes in vitro fertilization (IVF). First, your frozen eggs are thawed and fertilized with sperm in a laboratory setting to create embryos. Then, the healthiest embryo is chosen and transferred to the uterus with the hope that it’ll efficiently implant and develop right into a wholesome being pregnant.
With IVF, you may have the pliability to conceive a baby in just a few alternative ways. For those who select to conceive with a associate, relying on their anatomy you might use their sperm or work with a sperm financial institution. For those who select to conceive with out a associate, you need to use donor sperm. You might also select to make use of a gestational surrogate to hold your being pregnant, by which case your fertilized egg can be transferred to a surrogate’s uterus as a substitute of your personal to hold to time period.
Egg freezing is a exceptional scientific development that opens up a world of alternatives for people and {couples} who may not be prepared to start out a household. Whether or not you’re somebody going through an surprising flip in life or just planning forward, the reassurance it offers can guarantee you could pursue parenthood with out the strain of a ticking organic clock. It may be an funding in your future household and supply a way of autonomy, permitting you to construct your loved ones when and for those who’re prepared to take action. As reproductive applied sciences proceed to evolve, the know-how behind egg freezing will proceed to enhance, advance, and develop its potential to assist numerous pathways to parenthood.
