Case Description :
Mrs XY who was 34 years old already had a 9 year old daughter. She was however concerned about her decline in fertility as each year went by and she hadn’t decided yet if she would plan for a second pregnancy. She had heard a lot about social freezing of eggs. She decided to visit Xenith Advanced fertility centre as she had heard about us through her social circle and online.
What could we offer?
Mr XY was living overseas so we considered oocyte freezing instead of embryo freezing for Mrs XY. She was well evaluated and her ovarian reserve was assessed. We could consider oocyte freezing for her and with a good ovarian stimulation which is key to getting the optimal quantity and quality of eggs, we retrieved the required number of good quality oocytes in a single cycle. Mrs XY now has her oocytes frozen with us and she feels more in control with her fertility.
What is Social Freezing?
Women differ from men in their ability to reproduce. Born with a finite number of eggs for fertilization, women are often under pressure to manage their “biological clock”. We are constantly talking about the decrease in the quality and quantity of the woman’s eggs, as she ages, that is necessary for a successful pregnancy. This means that with aging, the basic ability of the egg to fertilise, implant and eventually lead to a pregnancy decreases.
An underexplored option is that of egg freezing, scientifically known as oocyte cryopreservation. The process involves extracting eggs from a woman’s body and freezing them. The frozen eggs can be later thawed and fertilised with a sperm (husband’s/ partner’s/donor’s) in the lab, through a process known as in-vitro fertilisation. Egg-freezing can be beneficial to women who want or need to delay childbearing in order to pursue educational, career or other personal goals, women diagnosed with cancer, separated couples and so on. It enables women to preserve their fertility and open up so many doors to fulfil their dreams.
At Xenith the rate of obtaining good quality oocytes after taking them out of the freezing and warming them is excellent and many women have conceived using eggs that were frozen.