Freezing your eggs for Mr. Right July 14, 2009
Posted by jewaira in Health, Husbands, Life, Lifestyle, Motherhood, Polls, Women.trackback
Lucy Edge writes a poignant account of her struggle to conceive and how she finally had to accept the fact that she would never have her own biological children. Like so many other women, Lucy was career oriented and put off thinking seriously about settling down or starting a family until it was too late.
“……In my 20s there’d been a lightness of touch in my office affairs (the odd kiss and cuddle behind the filing cabinet), but by my 30s my relationships were tinged with desperation.
I hadn’t found him, and I was worried. Yet, I refused to prioritise the man-hunt – the idea seemed so old-fashioned.
When I was 36, my ever-thoughtful stepmother suggested I freeze my eggs to give myself the chance of ‘an ice baby’. But I didn’t – something I bitterly regret.
Not only is it a rather expensive procedure to go through for the sake of an insurance policy, but it involves confronting the possibility that you might not meet the man of your dreams before your eggs ‘run out’.
Few young, single women can contemplate that thought. But take it from me: if you’re young, single and not in a position to have a child, you should consider it. Those eggs will remain as young as you are today, and one day they might be your only hope.
That terrible reality became increasingly clear to me after I met David and our effort to get pregnant naturally yielded no results.”
Egg freezing ( Oocyte cryopreservation ) is a way for women to preserve their fertility till they are ready to conceive.
Those Lucy’s better freeze in themself .
Huh?
In some way it sound so ugly, depressing. People seem to be never satisfied. Make a choice. Gdamned. A career or childeren. Why everybody have to reproduce themself ?
It is business you know. Scientific moneymakers.
Out of nature. So many people too feed.Spend your money for them. Ego maniacs !
Yes, Fons, it is a lucrative business indeed
Maybe in the future they will sell kits in the pharmacy where people, male or female, can reproduce clones of themselves at home in a do it yourself fashion
Sell you sperm spoil you sperm boil your eggs freeze your eggs, mess around whatever you like.
I’m not before or against (against) it is only one other idea about happiness from an old-fashion baby boomer.
I read once about one eligible young man made quite a lot of money selling his quality sperm to a sperm bank and paid his way through college.
I think if this technology is not abused, it offers hope and happiness to those people who have been through unfortunate circumstances that may prevent them from conceiving naturally.
I didn’t like the idea of it, but then when I read the story I can understand the situation. A very difficult position to be in, so many choices to be made.
The idea may sound bizarre but unlike men, women are born with the number of eggs they will have for the rest of their lives and those eggs will age as they do and be susceptible to external factors.
I think it is a wonderful chance to take especially if a woman is not in a hurry to get married or conceive or if she may be going to receive treatment that may damage or lessen her chances of becoming pregnant in future (like chemo for example)
It’s why the fertitity clincs worldwide are usually busy. It’s a myth that you can wait. The optimim time to have kids is before the age of 30 and nothing in the world that we have now can change that. Even freezing eggs isn’t full proof because sucessful IVF isn’t guaranteed. Many women go through years of IVF and never have kids.
that’s true; how many success stories do come out of all those people trying?
In retrospect, it is one reason why Kuwaiti mothers-in-law want their sons to get busy and produce at least one child as soon as the couple is married. It is unfortunate for women that the quality of our eggs does change over time and unlike some wines, does not improve.
Even if women are fertile in their 40’s, there is still a high risk of genetic diseases to worry about
Oocyte cryopreservation can also let young women suffering from cancer to salvage their fertility before they are subjected to chemoradiation. As an aside the best time for a woman to copulate and raise a family is between 24 and 28 when her pelvic ligaments are at their supplest allowing for an uneventful labor and peurperium to happen. So much for becoming pregnant at the ripe old age of 40 and above!
I would definitely urge women to salvage their fertility if they have any disease that may cause a problem later on.
Post 40 pregnancy is the new challenge now for modern women and am sure with the proper Pilates, Yogalates, and other types of exercise that promote a supple body, an uneventful labour and puerpuerium can occur
testing un dos tres
hehe, there you go again
God the comments here ranged from wise and insightful to downright hysterically funny (LOL on supple pelvic ligaments and peurperium…)
The science of oocyte cryopresevation is getting better and better and far more solid as each year goes by, as are the success rates in achieving pregnancy from eggs that have been cryopreserved. I think the last story I read was about a 45 year old woman who had twins from eggs she froze at age 37 or 38. It is important to note that the eggs that are frozen are those which have cellular markers of maturity and strength, and pass certains criteria which ensures their viability when thawed sand greatly increases the chance of achieving successful pregnancies from them at a later date. The scientific protocols emerging and evolving are exciting. It is something which any woman who has the financial means and time to put into it should definitely consider of she has not found the ideal situation and partner for herself at an earlier point in her life. And believe me, one CAN find the right partner at a later point in life, it ain’t over till it’s over. Life does continue and holds lots of wonderful surprises for all… So more power to any woman who chooses to give herself options and does what she can to take charge of what she can in her life.
It is important to note: we have the technology in Kuwait for egg freezing, however, most places will not do so unless its on the quiet for single unmarried women. Egg freezing is exactly the same process as IVF, except that the eggs are frozen and not fertilized to make embryos and implanted in the womans uterus as they are in a full IVF cycle.
My advice for someone considering oocyte cryopreservation would be to do it as soon as possible before the age of 35. Egg quality can be just fine at age 38, 39, or 40 in terms of freezing and pregnancy, but it is unpredictable and varies from woman to woman. There are woman who through no fault of their own go through premature menopause even in their late 20’s or early 30’s. Don’t wait, do it as soon as you can.
Thank you MsBaker and good to see you again.
Egg freezing is available in Kuwait? Interesting. Those eggs have to be accessible when needed in future. I would be interested in knowing what local companies/clinics offer this service/
Alright, so you’ve frozen your eggs at 22 found your Mr . Right at 42 and decide on having a baby with him. Now what if Mr. Right, who shall we say, is 58 has damaged sperms. Advanced paternal age is also being implicated in the causation of neuro-psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia as well as Y chromosome micro-deletions. Earlier, older men used to receive a clean chit in being able to father children with much younger women no matter what their age. Not any longer, I am afraid.
On the face of it, oocyte cryopreservation seems to good a thing to be true. But in reality, it is only giving a beer view of life at a champagne budget.
The less you muck around with the fundamental laws of nature the better it is for all concerned.
Besides there are several things physical like running with your kids in the park or cycling with them in the woods or playing soccer with them that older mums and dads find it difficult to do.
Everything has its price.
But there is something about having your own biological child that makes people around the world regardless of their cultural backgrounds, go to extremes to realize their fertility
Jewaira anyplace that does IVF – any hospital or medical clinic- has the ability and potential to freeze eggs. It’s a question of having a successful scientific protocol or technique to ensure the oocytes (eggs) viability and survival when thawed after the freezing process so that they can be fertilized and then implanted into the mothers womb when the time comes to do so. This is why you have various clinics and medical companies which have quite high success rates and advertise themselves and their own patented individual protocols for egg freezing. And yes, since IVF is done quite abundantly and successfully in Kuwait – including freezing *embryos* for future use (fertilized eggs – egg + sperm – something which they do quite successfully in Kuwait) the ability to freeze oocytes is also quite there. I am aware of a couple of aggressively business minded but somewhat rogue medical clinics (with somewhat spotted reputations) which have quietly tried to put out the word that they do so on the quiet. I personally would not put myself into the hands of such medically unethical institutions or undergo such a procedure with such precarious places. I also have heard that egg freezing is done in Dubai or the UAE. However if I were to personally choose to undergo such a procedure, there is no way I would entrust myself to any clinic that was not European or in the US because these are where the standards, research and protocols have been highly successful over the longest periods of time.
It is interesting to note that the technology to successfully freeze eggs and ensure they were viable when thawed first came from Italy.
thank you MsBaker for sharing all this information with us.
It’s a fascinating alternative as I have mentioned before and it would help to know what choices people do have locally as well as internationally
Miss Baker :
where have you been , long time no see .
Shakhbarich ??
Secondly Your comment is too short
missed you
Jewaira
Freezing eggs in Kuwait ?? how can you trust a thing like that ??
Look at the egg rack in the Coops and see if you can spot a carton with Eggs intact , You are lucky to go home to find one or two eggs only broken . If this is what we do to real eggs which are sizable imagine what we will do with human variety
that’s why we need standards MrDaggero and ethical ones most importantly
there is time for everything
if u miss the window you are doomed.
Imran we missed you wisdoms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_on_Waves
Thank you for the link Fons
I had not heard of WoW or Rebecca Gomperts
although it is the complete opposite of the post topic
The new age wave is to also freeze your sperms for Ms. Right, right ?!
Unless there are certain occupational or environmental hazards that require it, it seems to me male sperm is always renewable and there is no expiry date on it.
My humble non-scientific opinion