Egg freezing know as oocyte cryopreservation has
become more popular over the years. Why are women freezing their eggs? There
are various reason why a woman would choose to freeze her eggs, some for work
or school related issue others for health concerns. Freezing eggs to preserve fertility
has become a popular treatment, due to its ability to work without the need for
sperm unlike the IVF technology. Still, this process still remains an expensive
one. This process takes typically around 4 to 6 weeks of preparation referred
to as a cycle. A cycle can be about $10,000 for freezing and storing. The
average cost to freeze and store your eggs for 15 years is approximately around
$32,000-53,000. For some this amount might not be worth it considering the success
rates of pregnancy in this treatment. Each egg, or oocyte, has the estimated
survival rate of 4-12 percent. The percentage would differ per woman based on
age. It is important to consider that the most important factors to keep in
mind is your success rate lies on age of freezing and how many eggs you froze.
This could be a reason why the egg freezing market has
been targeting a younger audience, women in their mid-twenties. By age 35
female fertility has dropped to around 50 percent. However, with a high price (and
considering a significant probability of failure) how many women can actually
afford to pay for this treatment?
While women with health concerns might receive help from
their insurances, others might benefits from working with a company that
provides it as one of their health benefits. In fact, some Fortune 100
companies, like Apple, Netflix, etc. have offered this among their benefits and
critics have questioned the impact this could have to the workplace demographic.
Some say this could possibly allow for discrimination against the women who
choose to not use this option. Many think the employers would ultimately
benefits due to favoring women who will most likely choose to work and secure financial
stability before taking on motherhood.
Another option of treatment for some people who are
having trouble conceiving, would be IVF or in-vitro fertilization. The process of IVF requires egg retrieval and sperm sample to be used in insemination. After this, when the egg becomes embryos it is inserted inside the woman again. One thing that is different about this, is that if both the male and the women are infertile, they need can choose to have donors for both the sperm and egg. This option is sometimes used by couples where the man might be the one with low fertility rate. This too is also an expensive option nonetheless and oftentimes is not covered by insurance plans. This treatment takes about a month and can cost around $12,000-17,000 for a single cycle. Again the success rate for this is dependent on age and can range from 40% for women under 35 and 33-36% for women between 35-37.
Both of these treatments have shown to have reshaped our normal timeline of parenthood. I see how egg freezing has become a more popular option amongst young women and I think it’s a less controversial procedure, being less ethically intrusive.
Works cited:Both of these treatments have shown to have reshaped our normal timeline of parenthood. I see how egg freezing has become a more popular option amongst young women and I think it’s a less controversial procedure, being less ethically intrusive.
https://americanpregnancy.org/infertility/in-vitro-fertilization/
https://www.advancedfertility.com/ivf.htm
http://obgyn.ucla.edu/egg-freezing
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/expensive-lottery-ticket-freezing-eggs-offers-women-hope-not-everyone-n975921
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/insight-employer-subsidized-egg-freezing-benefitswho-really-pays
FYI, I just finished reading the two chapters (21-22) and I can say that my perspective has changed a little bit but I still favor the idea of having these two options.
ReplyDelete"A study by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) of women who used their frozen eggs in 2014 found that only 14% of implantation cycles were successful. So how effective is the technology? And should women really be trusting egg freezing as a fertility solution, given the limited evidence in its favour? Dr Kylie Baldwin, a medical sociologist with the Centre for Reproduction Research at De Montfort University, is sceptical: “The technology has been presented as a magic bullet to level the playing field between women and men, reproductively speaking. However, the success rates are still low.” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/nov/06/hope-or-hype-the-chilling-truth-about-freezing-your-eggs
ReplyDeleteIn early 2017, with her 45th birthday looming and no sign of Mr. Right, she decided to start a family on her own. She excitedly unfroze the 11 eggs she had stored and selected a sperm donor.
ReplyDeleteTwo eggs failed to survive the thawing process. Three more failed to fertilize. That left six embryos, of which five appeared to be abnormal. The last one was implanted in her uterus. On the morning of March 7, she got the devastating news that it, too, had failed.
Adams was not pregnant, and her chances of carrying her genetic child had just dropped to near zero. She remembers screaming like “a wild animal,” throwing books, papers, her laptop — and collapsing to the ground.
“It was one of the worst days of my life. There were so many emotions. I was sad. I was angry. I was ashamed,” she said. “I questioned, ‘Why me?’ ‘What did I do wrong?’ ”
In an age when egg freezing has become so popular that hip employers such as Apple and Facebook cover it as a perk and grandparents help finance the procedure like they might a down payment for a house, there’s surprisingly little discussion about what happens years later when women try to use them. Fertility companies tend to advertise egg freezing — “oocyte cryopreservation,” in scientific terms — as something that can “stop time.” And many women believe they are investing in an insurance policy for future babies.
But the math doesn’t always hold up. On average, a woman freezing 10 eggs at age 36 has a 30 to 60 percent chance of having a baby with them, according to published studies. The odds are higher for younger women, but they drop precipitously for older women. They also go up with the number of eggs stored (as does the cost). But the chance of success varies so wildly by individual that reproductive specialists say it’s nearly impossible to predict the outcome based on aggregate data... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/01/27/feature/she-championed-the-idea-that-freezing-your-eggs-would-free-your-career-but-things-didnt-quite-work-out/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.575bb79c5107
IVF is a complicated issue, the natural processes are difficult to properly mimic even if we are aware of all the steps. It simply is not viable to expect some situation out of science fiction at this point of our scientific ability. It is a balancing act of hormones, temperature, cellular signaling, nutrition, methylation and so on. Ice is dangerous to cells and forms crystals that can damage these eggs or embryos, not to mention the stability of the DNA itself.
ReplyDeleteDQ:
ReplyDeleteDoes charging steep prices for egg freezing or IVF infringe on market-based eugenics?
Is there one option that is or could possibly be superior to the other with upcoming technology?
Could large companies sponsoring fertilizations be a stepping stone to a possible stranglehold on the genetic industry?
Are assisted pregnancies ethical in the first place?