Egg Freezing – How Is it Helping Women Entrepreneurs? Through this technique, even 40-year-old women can easily achieve pregnancy
By Dr. Sahil Gupta •
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Egg freezing is highly beneficial for a number of reasons, especially for women wishing to preserve their fertility for future.
Women are increasingly achieveing higher education in fields of their choice and are doing so quite comfortably, with greater conviction and dedication. It is natural for educated, modern women to achieve greater heights in her career and in education. A high percentage of women from all kinds of backgrounds are fulfilling their careeristic ambitions with high flying and demanding jobs. There is also an increasing percentage of women turning to entrepreneurship.
In order to pursue educational, career, entrepreneurial or other personal goals many women may want or need to delay conception and child bearing.
What is Egg Freezing
Fertility typically reduces with age. Freezing your eggs at a younger age insures the possibility of a future pregnancy. Uterus does not age, the ovaries and eggs do. Cryo-preserved or frozen eggs do not deteriorate in quality when preserved properly.
Beneficial for Women Diagnosed with Cancer or Any Other Disorder
Chemotherapy, radiation, or other oncological treatments for cancer patients destroys eggs and may result in infertility. Hence, women diagnosed with cancer may opt for egg freezing at different stages of their treatment depending on their age, type of cancer and their treatment plan to preserve their fertility.
Early menopause and other forms of ovarian disorders are genetically linked. In case of the women who have a family history of such disorders, it may be a good idea to opt for egg freezing to preserve the eggs before they deplete completely.
Ideal Stage To Opt For Egg-freezing
To take the advantage of the prime reproductive years — between 20s and early 30s—a woman should go ideally for egg freezing. This is the time when the eggs are of premium quality and are available in healthy quantity.
Problems in the Process
Although sperm and embryo freezing have been easy to accomplish, but eggs or oocytes have a lot of water content, which can form ice crystals when frozen, thus destroying it. In order to avoid this ice crystal formation, the egg first needs to be dehydrated and the water needs to be replaced with an "anti-freeze'. The shells of these eggs are hardened and for fertilization later, the semen needs to be injected through a needle using ICSI or Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection, which is a fairly standard technique.
Once the basic tests and ultrasounds are done to determine the natural hormone levels, the hormone injection process is started. The egg freezing cycle consists of about four to six weeks and is similar to the IVF procedure at this stage.
Helpful for Women of Advanced Age
Through this technique, women of advanced ages, like 40 years and above, can easily achieve pregnancy and bear children without undue risks. This technique not only ensures that the best quality eggs are preserved at the right time and age. It also reduces the risk of miscarriage or other complications associated with delayed preganancies. While women are striving to achieve new heights in every aspect of their life, advanced medical techniques like egg freezing are giving them wings of freedom to experience motherhood and achieve their career ambitions on their own terms.
