Egg freezing: pros and cons

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This procedure has become almost commonplace in the West, but it still raises concerns in our country.

Cryopreservation, or freezing oocytes occurs through medical intervention. A certain number of eggs are taken from the female body, which are processed and frozen in a special way. At the same time, the shelf life of them is not determined.

This method of "deferred" motherhood is actively used by stars who do not want to interrupt their careers with pregnancy and childbirth. But for ordinary women, the procedure raises a lot of questions.

We will try to consider in detail its positive and negative sides.

Pros of egg freezing

1. The body ages, but the eggs do not. Women later decide to have a child, pursue a career and self-development, but the body lives in its own biorhythm.

And after 35 years, the quality of the eggs drops noticeably, as does the ability to get pregnant and bear a healthy child. With cryopreservation, cells will remain "young".

2. Moral pressure goes away. A woman is no longer pressed by the thought of a "ticking clock" and the need to urgently find a man who will become the father of her future children, until her youth is gone.

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Frozen eggs can be used whenever you like. And relationships can be built without raising the topic of children ahead of time.

3. The opportunity to have children after a serious illness. If a woman undergoes chemotherapy, her reproductive function is practically destroyed.

Therefore, before starting treatment, it is worth freezing the eggs in order to be able to get offspring in the future after recovery.

4. This is not a difficult manipulation. It depends on what to compare, of course, but still this is not an abdominal operation. Egg freezing is preceded by an injection to make the ovaries work more actively and so that not one mature egg comes out of them, as with standard ovulation, but a couple of dozen.

No one freezes one cell - they take a lot of them, and the older the woman, the more they take, because their survival rate is less. The manipulation itself takes place under anesthesia.

Cons of freezing eggs

1. The procedure and storage are not free. The cost may differ depending on the clinic and city, but the freezing procedure costs about 5-6 thousand UAH, storage of the material - another 3-4 thousand UAH per year.

Plus co-payments for injections, examinations, etc.

2. Unpleasant sensations. This is all individual, but most women complain of discomfort after injections, which stimulate the release of eggs: the stomach hurts and swells up, the following menstruation after the procedure passes painful.

There may also be pain after the oocyte retrieval procedure - this is done with a needle through the vagina.

3. Stress. An unfamiliar procedure, uncertainty about whether the eggs will survive and whether money will be thrown away and time wasted - all this is a great stress for a woman. Plus, the increased hormone levels from injections add fuel to the fire.

Although after the procedure, many women note that they have become calmer, because they feel that they are "reinsured" for the future.

4. Not all cells survive. The percentage is very high, but no one can give you an accurate forecast. They take a lot of them, because a certain number will definitely survive. But another problem arises: they may not take root after an attempt at fertilization. It all depends on the age and health of the woman.

Even with frozen eggs, it will be more difficult to get pregnant after 40 years than at 30.

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