Want children of your own, but not quite yet? Luckily, women can freeze their eggs for use at a later date. Welcome to the world of social freezing, or egg freezing.
While freezing sperm cells and embryos has long been established as standard, it was not clear until recently whether egg freezing was as effective.
Then, in 2010, the first European working groups were able to show that certain freezing methods can achieve similar pregnancy rates to fresh egg cells.
Initially, freezing eggs (oocyte cryopreservation) was intended mainly for women dealing with the possibility of a loss of fertility as a side effect of upcoming treatment, such as chemotherapy. However, the technique is now used to offer women more flexible life planning.
It means that women who cannot or who do not want to have children at the current time for private or professional reasons can have their eggs frozen and use them at a later time to get pregnant. The term ‘social freezing’ is now commonly used to designate egg freezing for non-medical reasons.
A woman is born with the amount of eggs she will have for her entire life. This reserve of eggs only shrinks over time.
This means that as a woman ages, two problems arise in terms of her fertility:
Egg freezing can increase the chances of pregnancy at a later date by retrieving healthy eggs as early as possible, while the woman is still young, and storing them for use later, when the woman is older and therefore less fertile.
If you would like to know more about social freezing, have a question or would like to make an appointment at your local fertility centre, please contact us. We will get in touch with you as soon as possible.
As the chances of natural pregnancy start decreasing from the age of 30, it is best to perform egg freezing as early as possible. The most reliable studies at the moment work on the basis of a 40% chance of a subsequent live birth for 10 stored eggs, 60% for 12 eggs and 90% for 20 eggs, if the eggs were retrieved at the optimal stage of life (i.e. when the woman was younger than 30).
Studies show that children conceived from frozen eggs are at a risk level comparable to that of children conceived during normal IVF/ICSI cycles. The hormone treatment required for egg freezing generally entails mild physical stress for women. These days, hyperstimulation rarely occurs thanks to the improved stimulation protocols. Individual consultation is part of the treatment.
The costs of egg freezing are not yet reimbursed by health insurance companies in Germany. However, an increasing number of employers are offering to cover some of the costs for their employees. In addition to the cost of hormone treatment and egg retrieval, fees are also charged for freezing the eggs and the yearly storage. When the frozen eggs are used, the cost of in vitro fertilisation is also added.
We regularly organise free information events, both online and on-site at the fertility centres. At our events, we provide you with detailed information about our types of treatment and answer all your questions about the desire to have children.
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