All you need to know about freezing your eggs
More Indian women are opting to freeze their eggs for safer and healthier pregnancies when the time is right. Here’s what you need to know
There are more frogs than princes in the pool, but the clock is ticking. Women call the shots at work, but the clock is ticking. They work all day, party all night and don’t remember the last time they had sex, but the fact is, the clock is ticking.
Women who want children can’t freeze time. Fortunately, they can freeze their eggs.
Ever since 2012, when the American Fertility Society declared that egg freezing was no longer experimental, women have been opting for the procedure. Here’s how it works: Healthy eggs are harvested from a woman’s body, and stored in liquid nitrogen at -196 degrees Celsius to preserve them. When the woman wants to start a family, the eggs are fertilised, using sperm from a donor or the woman’s partner, and then implanted in her uterus or into that of a surrogate.
Freezing one’s eggs allows women to delay having babies, to refrain from panic-partnering with the wrong person, and to leave their options open before undergoing medical treatment for cancer and other diseases. A frozen egg that is several years old typically also has a better chance of fertilisation than a fresh egg from an older woman. According to a study published in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics in May 2021, a woman in her 40s has a 6% chance of conceiving through IVF. However, if she freezes her eggs in her 30s, her chances of having her own biological children is greater than 40%.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas, 40, froze hers at 30, and has said in interviews that she felt “such freedom” afterwards. Big-ticket companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook encourage the procedure (often even paying for it) as an employee perk. But it does involve significant mental, financial and physical anxiety. So before heading to the gynaecologist, here are the questions to ask.
The when
Kolkata-based gynaecologist, fertility specialist and laparoscopic surgeon Dr Rajeev Agarwal recommends doing an ovarian reserve test yearly to determine fertility levels. “The earlier one does it, the higher the chances of the eggs resulting in pregnancies at a later stage,” he says. “Most people think of 30 as a cut-off, but post-Covid we are seeing even 25-year-olds with fertility issues.” Five years ago, Dr Agarwal did one procedure. This year, he’s already done five.
At 37, advocate Nandini Khaitan was on the fence about freezing her eggs. But when her ovarian reserve test revealed her fertility level to be at par with a 34-year-olds, she knew it had to be done. “That gave me the assurance to do the procedure,” she says.
The how
It takes a bit of prep. Most procedures begin with a cycle of injecting medications, to produce more eggs. “The idea is to harvest a large batch to freeze at once,” says Dr Harmeet Khurana, consultant obstetrician-gynaecologist at Neptune Hospital, Delhi. Once the eggs are ready, the woman is put under anaesthesia so the eggs can be removed and stored immediately in liquid nitrogen. The whole process can take 10 to 14 days, and the harvesting is performed on the 12th or 13th day of a woman’s cycle.
The woman has bought herself some time, but only just. Under Indian law, the storage period is capped at 10 years.
The why
Be very sure before signing up. The option appealed to a 34-year-old lawyer, who wanted to remain anonymous, because she had always imagined herself with children. After the first round of hormones, however, she decided to back out. “It was too painful and tedious to self-administer the injections and visit the hospital alone. I didn’t see the point of putting myself through it with no emotional support,” she says.
Dr Agarwal stresses the importance of counselling potential clients. “Our job is to collect eggs and make embryos, but there is no guarantee that these embryos will result in a pregnancy,” he says.
The how much
Another deterrent can be the high cost. Depending on the location of the procedure and the number of eggs, this may add up to rupees two to three lakh. Then there’s the annual storage amount, from ₹10,000 to ₹30,000 per frozen follicle annually, depending on the city (it’s cheaper in Kolkata than Mumbai or Delhi) and the facility.
However, Dr Agarwal believes that the cost is often the least important factor for women. “In many cases, this procedure is a necessity for them, not a luxury,” he says. “I also don’t believe the cost is prohibitively expensive.” The procedure is cheaper to do in India as compared to other countries, adds Dr Agarwal, and most clients opt for it only after considering all their choices carefully.
The what if
Once the procedure is done, be prepared for potential side effects – both physical and emotional. These are similar to the ones involved in IVF cycles, and in most cases, short-lived. They can include bleeding, possible anaesthetic complications, weight gain, nausea, mood swings, bloating, and constipation. Khaitan says that she suffered from ovarian hyperstimulation, which required her to be on semi bedrest for eight to nine days. “I had been told about this but wasn’t prepared for it,” she says.
The doctors caution that the emotional consequences may be hard to endure. “Unfortunately, there is still a social taboo against egg freezing,” Dr Khurana says. “A revolution is required to let women take charge of their own fertility.”
