Monday, March 11, 2013

Single and Over 35 ... Clock is ticking!

Written By: Sam K.                     Contact me at Eggfreezing101@gmail.com for Q's or Comments
I vividly remember the first time someone introduced the subject of egg freezing to me. I was 34 and my OB / GYN glanced at my chart and then me, and asked, "So, have you ever contemplated freezing your eggs or creating an embryo?" To be perfectly honest, I was in shock and a little bit offended. I guess the single, unmarried box, next to my birthdate was her trigger to broach the topic. I was fit, dating someone new, and about to be 35. Why would I need to worry about my biological clock, right?

I mean, everyday I was reading in US Weekly about a different celebrity that gave birth to another child over 40. Couldn't I wait too? What I did not know then was that most of these women were using either egg donors to get pregnant or were doing rounds of IVF (hormone injections and then an embryo transfer) to achieve the same result. I was so naive. The first thing I did on my journey to decide if freezing my eggs was the right thing for me was to educate myself on the process, the potential costs, and to find out what my chances were to have a baby one day with these eggs. I am going to give you my own personal take on the process and the pros and cons to Egg Freezing. 
vogue.com egg freezing
Vogue.com Egg Freezing

Here is a little Egg Freezing 101 and Infertility vocabulary:
  • AMH: Anti-Mullerian Hormone, also referred to as MIS (Mullerian Inhibiting Substance), is produced by the ovarian follicles. AMH levels correlate with the number of antral follicles in the ovaries and gives an estimate of remaining egg supply. Women with lower AMH have lower antral follicular counts and produce a lower number of eggs compared with women with higher levels. AMH is only one factor that comprises a women's ovarian reserves prognosis. (Women with very low AMH <.2 and > 10 FSH are not good candidates for the egg freezing process.)

  • Antral follicle count (AFC):The number of follicles detected by the ultrasound at the beginning of the menstrual cycle, which indicates the size of your ovarian reserve.
  • ART: Assisted Reproductive Technologies (i.e.: IVF, egg freezing, egg donation, etc)
  • Chromosomal abnormalities: An atypical number of chromosomes. When numerical abnormalities occur in germ cells (i.e. sperm and egg cells) or during the very early stages of fetal development they may result in a miscarriage or in a developmental abnormality such as Down’s syndrome.
  • Egg donation: The process by which a woman donates several (usually 10-15) eggs for purposes of ART.
  • Egg freezing: also called human oocyte cryopreservation, is a rapidly advancing technology of extracting, freezing and storing a woman’s eggs (oocytes). The eggs can later be thawed, fertilized, and transferred to the uterus as embryos months or years later.Reproductive cryopreservation is not new. Medical clinics have been freezing sperm since the 1950s and embryos since the 1980s. Doctors in Australia reported the world’s first pregnancy using frozen oocytes in 1984.
    Read more at http://rscbayarea.com/learn/egg-freezing#zdMicOEdatyIYIZv.99
  • Egg vitrification: Instead of slowly being cooled, eggs are quickly vitrified by replacing their water content with a cryoprotectant solution. When ready to be used, vitrified eggs are thawed instead of warmed resulting in decreased rates of ice crystal development that often occurs in the slow cooling method.
  • Embryo: A fertilized egg that has begun cell division.
  • Estradiol: The primary female sex hormone. It is formed from developing ovarian follicles and is responsible for female characteristics and sexual functioning. Estradiol levels are also measured in the FSH Day 3 blood exam to check ovarian reserves. For each mature egg, your Estradiol goes up another 200 pg. By your egg retrieval day, you could be over 5000 pg. For more information on estradiol, click here.
  • Fallopian tubes: Two tubes that transport the egg from the ovary to the uterus (womb).
  • “Fast” egg freezing: Preferred method for preserving eggs for storage. see egg vitrification
  • Fertilization: The union of mature male and female gametes (reproductive cells) to form a zygote (or fertilized egg).
  • FSH: Follicle stimulating hormone; causes follicles to grow
  • FSH Day 3 Test: Follicle stimulating hormone test is a routine blood test administered on Day 3 of menstruation to measure ovarian reserves. High levels of FSH may indicate poor ovarian reserves while low levels of FSH indicate strong ovarian reserves.
  • LH: Luteinizing hormone; causes eggs to mature. In the egg freezing process, you want to make sure you control the surge. Drugs like cetrotide and ganelrix delay or suppress the LH surge to give more eggs time to mature before ovulation.
  • ICSI: Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is used to fertilize frozen eggs. The technique involves directly injecting a single sperm into a single egg with a needle instead of allowing sperm to penetrate the egg naturally in a Petri dish.
  • In Vitro Fertilization (IVF): The process of fertilization by manually combining an egg and sperm in a laboratory dish. If successful, the fertilized egg or embryo will be transferred to the uterus. For more information, click here.
  • Mature Egg: An egg housed in a follicle that is between 18mm - 22mm in size. Only mature eggs can be fertilized with sperm to create a healthy embryo.
  • Menopause: The cessation of ovulation and menstrual cycles.
  • Oocyte: An immature, or unfertilized, female egg cell.
  • Oocyte cryopreservation: Commonly referred to as egg freezing, oocyte cryopreservation is a procedure that extracts, freezes and stores unfertilized eggs for future use.
  • Ovarian Follicles: A cellular structure found in the ovary where immature eggs mature, leading to ovulation and either pregnancy or menstruation.
  • Ovarian hyperstimulation: The use of fertility drugs to stimulate the ovaries to develop follicles. Not to be confused with OHSS
  • Ovarian reserves: Indicates a woman’s fertility potential and is commonly used as a barometer for the likelihood of fertility success. Measurements such as FSH, AMH, other hormones, and the renting antral follicle count are used to determine the prognosis of one's OR.
  • Ovary: One of a pair of reproductive glands located on each side of the uterus. The ovaries produce eggs and female hormones. During a healthy menstrual cycle, one egg is released from one ovary.
  • Ovulation: Time at which a mature egg is released from the ovary, passed through the fallopian tube and ready for fertilization. It occurs post the LH surge.
  • Ovum: see oocyte
  • SART: Society for Reproductive Technology
  • “Slow” egg freezing: Process by which female eggs are slowly dehydrated by replacing their water content with small amounts of cryoprotectant, or freezing agent. When the eggs reach minus 32 Celsius they are placed in liquid nitrogen and transformed into a solid.
  • Ultrasound: A medical imaging technique that uses high frequency sound waves. Ultrasounds are used in egg freezing for visualizing the follicles in the ovaries.
  • Vitrify: To change or make into glass or a glassy substance.
  • Vitrification: Instead of slowly being cooled, eggs are quickly vitrified by replacing their water content with a cryoprotectant solution. When ready to be used, vitrified eggs are thawed instead of warmed resulting in decreased rates of ice crystal
Stay tuned for my next blog on how I made the final decision to invest in freezing my own eggs to preserve my fertility for the future.




True Confessions ... Egg Freezing 
Contact Me with any questions or comments at: Eggfreezing101@gmail.com

True Confessions ... Egg Freezing 

1 comment:

  1. Egg freezing can be used for two indication, medical (fertility preservation in women diagnosed with a disease that may impact future fertility) or social (extension of fertility beyond the reproductive lifespan in women delaying conception).

    Egg Freezing Cost(s)

    ReplyDelete