Unfortunately, a woman's reproductive age is limited - after 35 years, the chances of getting pregnant and having a healthy child decrease. What should those who want to become a mom do, but only in a few years? Alternatively, you can freeze your own eggs.
Egg cryopreservation: attitude to the procedure abroad and in Russia
Abroad, more and more women of reproductive age resort to the service of freezing their eggs, some large companies even pay for cryopreservation for their employees. According to opinion polls, the procedure is popular among female students and girls with higher education aged 25-35. The main reason they want to freeze their sex cells is an unstable financial situation or lack of a worthy partner.
In Russia, the egg cryopreservation service is not so in demand, as a rule, it is necessary for medical reasons - in case of fertility preservation before chemotherapy for cancer or before surgery, as well as if a woman wants to postpone the issue of motherhood for several years.
How are eggs frozen and thawed in the EMC?
1. Consultation and examination. The ovarian reserve of the body is determined (the number of eggs that can be used for fertilization) and it is decided whether stimulation is necessary to extract them or not. If necessary, gentle hormone therapy is prescribed. Then the optimal day is selected for the extraction procedure itself.
2. Egg extraction takes place transvaginally (through the vagina) with anesthesia.
3. Cryopreservation. The eggs are transferred to embryologists for further freezing and placement in a cryobank.
4. The stage when a woman is ready to become a mother. Repeated examination of the patient, thawing of the egg and its subsequent fertilization with sperm from a partner or donor. Next, the zygote is placed in a special environment for development for five days and then transferred to the uterine cavity.
The most important question is: is the egg extraction procedure safe for the female body and does the biomaterial retain all its properties after defrosting? It is answered by Evgeny Yutkin, Head of the Department of Embryology EMC Reproductive and Prenatal Medicine Clinics.
«The egg extraction procedure is safe for a woman and is performed in the most comfortable conditions for her under the careful supervision of a reproductologist and an anesthesiologist. The risks are the same as in standard IVF, they are all discussed at the consultation after the examination. Regarding the quality of the biomaterial after defrosting: it does not change its properties, since it is cryopreserved using advanced technologies and stored at a temperature of -196 C. At such a low temperature, the entire metabolism of the cell stops, as if time stops for it. In other words, you're getting older, but your cells aren't."