Fertility on Ice: Jump in Social Egg Freezing

It’s popular in the US – Jennifer Aniston is said to have undergone the procedure – and it seems it’s taking off over here too.

An article in the Sun Herald over the weekend claims that increasing numbers of women in their 30s are seeking out egg-freezing services for “social” reasons, such as advancing age and lack of a willing baby-daddy.

Traditionally, egg freezing has mainly been undertaken by cancer patients left infertile by chemotherapy. But improvements in the process (vitrification is now used), with better success rates, have seen more women seek out the service.

In Brisbane each year, more than 100 women in their 30s are having their eggs frozen by the Queensland Fertility Group, while 14 women have arranged for “social egg-freezing” at Melbourne IVF over the past 18 months. A further 20 women have recently inquired about the procedure, which is not advertised.

It’s not cheap – it costs a woman about $12,000 to have unfertilised eggs extracted from her ovaries and then frozen and stored, but it seems many women view it as an insurance policy. However, babies aren’t guaranteed either.

A 2007 clinical study of 120 volunteers (463 vitrified eggs) apparently found that,while 99.4% vitrified eggs survived the warming procedure, and 92.9% of warmed eggs were fertilised, there was only 13.2% implantation rate per embryo, resulting in a 32.5% pregnancy rate. (which is about the same rate as using fresh eggs).

Indeed, while ethicists seem to not know what to make of the phenomenon (most Australian IVF clinics do not advertise the service and The British Fertility Society says that it lacks a firm policy on egg freezing), some fertility experts claim the main reason for caution is that they fear the procedure could offer false hope.

It’s interesting there are a few clichés thrown around in the reports about egg freezing – that it is a service for career women, that women should still understand that they should be thinking about motherhood earlier.

But without a willing partner, what is a woman supposed to do? She’s damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t.

Just as the contraceptive pill gave women the option not to get pregnant, perhaps fertility technology will give them control over the process when they do want to conceive too.