The 21st century career oriented woman want to have control over everything. It’s even more so in the western countries where women choose to delay having babies for varying reasons. One of the methods to help them do so is ‘Egg Freezing’.

According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), the procedure of freezing eggs is uncertain. It insists on giving counseling to women who opt for this procedure. The opinion differs among clinical experts and critics. It’s not wrong to say that most women would like to opt for this as if this is a safety locker, which can be opened, and things retrieved at any given time; at the same time it’s a boon for the to-be-mothers who want to postpone having a family for purely health reasons, say for example a women undertaking cancer treatment might be afraid that her baby would be affected.

The truth is the success rate for healthy live birth rate is only 2 in a hundred. There might be difference in opinion on the success rate but as long as women do not want to rely on this option as a very secure method, this can be taken as an option for delaying having children.

Image source: Extendfertility

Source: BBC114310

Comments

Rajni | Sep 15 2008

In the present era women has the right to take her decisions and i think Egg Freezing would be the good option for the women who don’t want babies for various reasons. After all its entirely their decision...

Reply to this comment

Melanie | Sep 15 2008

I am a big advocate of women being correctly informed on issues concerning their reproductive health and I can appreciate ASRM�s caution, but egg-freezing has been the standard of care in Italy since 2004! After doing extensive research about egg freezing, I have found that there have been over 500 babies born worldwide and of the ones that were followed-up, no increase in birth defects were seen.
As a culture I think that we should look at egg freezing as a great advance in reproductive choice.
I have found a company called Extend Fertility, who offer elective egg freezing and their website (www.extendfertility.com) is really full of information!

Oscar | Oct 6 2008

I kind of think of the ethical and security reason..what if someone decides to take a few for another person? What happens when a woman does decide to use a few, but no longer want the rest? what do they do with the eggs?