Egg freezing isn't insurance against future infertility

20.04.2015

Women who are considering having their eggs frozen to prolong fertility should be aware there is no guarantee they will have a baby, despite spending thousands of dollars on the retrieval procedure and storage, researchers say.

Primary-care doctors need to counsel women that so-called social egg freezing isn't insurance against future infertility and point out the high cost and medical risks of in-vitro fertilization.

"It's really getting marketed like it's a back-up plan, it's insurance," says lead author Angel Petropanagos, a post-doctoral fellow at Dalhousie University. "The problem is that the success rate isn't really that great."

For some time egg freezing has been used to preserve fertility in young women and girls treated for cancer, for instance. But more women who are delaying motherhood to build a career or who have not yet met a suitable partner are also electing to cryo-preserve their ova.

Females are born with all their eggs, or oocytes, but over time they begin to diminish in number and degrade in quality. To protect or preserve fertility, a number of eggs can be retrieved following hormonal stimulation of the ovaries, then flash-frozen and stored.

On average, each stimulation cycle costs $5,000 to $10,000, with annual storage fees ranging from $300 to $500, depending on the clinic, the researchers write.

In October, the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society released a position paper on egg freezing, describing it as "an option for women wishing to preserve their fertility in the face of anticipated decline." That contradicted a position statement by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (ASRM-SART), which cautioned again the practice.

Despite that position, some U.S. companies including Facebook and Apple have offered to cover limited insurance coverage for the cost of egg freezing for their employees.

U.S. statistics show the IVF pregnancy rate using frozen and thawed eggs is just 4.5 per cent to 12 per cent -- and that's primarily among women who had their ova preserved before age 30. Rates of pregnancy and live births decline among women as they age, and that's likely true for those who have their eggs frozen when they're older, said Petropanagos.

Using IVF to get pregnant also carries a number of risks, including multiple births, premature delivery and low birth-weight babies.

Dr. Ken Cadesky, medical director at Life Quest Centre for Reproductive Medicine in Toronto, said more women are approaching the clinic about banking their eggs for a future pregnancy. "It's not a flood, but it's definitely increased over the last three years," Cadesky said Monday, estimating that Life Quest gets about 60 to 80 requests a year.

Women are considered as candidates up until their 38th birthday. They must go through medical and psychological testing, as well as counselling about potential risks of powerful ovary-stimulating medications and those linked to future IVF before being accepted as clients.

Based on: ctvnews.ca