‘Doing it for myself’: The women freezing their eggs to raise their chances of conceiving
SINGAPORE: After half-dozen years of trying to become significant – including multiple rounds of IVF – Chloe (non her real name) was not about to concede defeat.
"I'm taking a break, but I know biologically I'm notwithstanding ageing," said the 40-yr-old director in an email to Aqueduct NewsAsia.
Like many women who get through the arduous journeying of attempting to excogitate, Chloe was anxious about her ticking biological clock.
"I wanted a backup plan, in example i day I do determine to endeavour again," she said.
Chloe outset heard about egg freezing later on reading an article that Google was paying for its employees to undertake the procedure. While her company or wellness insurance did not cover such treatment, Chloe was determined to secure "Plan B".
Last year, Chloe, a Singapore permanent resident, flew to a fertility clinic in Sydney to freeze her eggs. It wasn't a snap decision – it took her nearly iv years to consider her options.
"I ended up going for my gut instinct," said Chloe.
"I knew that if I didn't endeavor everything I could to accept children, I would accept regretted not having my eggs frozen."
EGG QUALITY DROPS WITH AGE
Chloe faced an issue that all women go through – the quality of her eggs would diminish over time.
A adult female is built-in with a finite number of eggs which continuously depletes throughout her lifetime, said Dr Lim Lei Jun from Sunfert International Fertility Centre in Kuala Lumpur.
"Women are almost fertile in their twenties and early thirties. After the age of 30, egg quantity and quality starts to decline," said Dr Lim.
The rate of reject is steepest after 37 or 38 years old.
"Even the healthiest diets or the all-time conditioning plans cannot reverse this fact."
Older eggs also accept a higher chance of being genetically aberrant, such equally having an actress chromosome which causes Down'due south syndrome, said Dr Lim.
Egg freezing, or oocyte cryopreservation, therefore provides women the possibility of preserving younger and possibly healthier eggs until they are prepare to start a family.
The process commencement involves stimulating the ovaries with hormones to produce multiple eggs, which is like to the initial stage of IVF.
The eggs are then retrieved using a needle, and subsequently frozen in subzero temperature for later use.
WHY ARE WOMEN FREEZING THEIR EGGS?
Some women choose to freeze their eggs for medical reasons.
For case, a woman who has to undergo cancer treatment would freeze her eggs since chemotherapy could adversely touch her fertility.
In Singapore, just women with justifiable medical conditions are allowed to freeze their eggs.
Because of this, healthy women in Singapore are going overseas to countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Commonwealth of australia and the US to undergo social egg freezing.
While career demands play a office, nigh women freeze their eggs because they have not found a suitable partner with whom to offset a family, said Dr Suresh Nair from Seed of Life, a fertility centre at Mount Elizabeth Novena.
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Speaking to Channel NewsAsia, Dr Nair said women – usually in their late 30s – find themselves with the looming question: "Will I exist childless forever - even if I see Mr Right?"
In 2017, the proportion of singles among Singaporeans across virtually age groups increased, with the biggest ascent among women anile 25 to 29.
Women in Singapore are expected to juggle and then much and come across society's expectations, said Dr Nair.
"They must practice well in academy, merely (also) do well at her workplace. She must be a expert daughter, must be a adept wife … and produce children, (and) look afterwards them," he listed.
Egg freezing tin can give time to programme out a future, along with a suitable partner and stable finances, Dr Nair said, calculation that he has seen an increase over recent years in queries near egg freezing.
Sunfert, located in Kuala Lumpur'south affluent suburb Bangsar, said it receives an boilerplate of i Singaporean woman each month wanting to freeze her eggs.
The clinic charges around RM20,000 to RM25,000 (S$6,600 to S$viii,300) for the procedure, which includes fertility medications, clinic visits, and the egg retrieval itself.
Nonetheless, this doesn't comprehend the storage fee, future thawing or fertilization when the woman is gear up to use her egg.
Though the hefty price tag itself might be a deterrent for many, Chloe said the cost was "non an issue for my peace of mind".
Not 100 PER CENT FOOLPROOF
Fifty-fifty if a adult female had adept eggs that tin exist frozen, other factors also play a part in the success of a pregnancy, cautioned Dr Nair.
"Your womb ages, you age, your middle ages, your lungs age, everything ages.
"Pregnancy is a massive onslaught to the female body. All sorts of other bug tin arise," he said.
According to a report published in the Canadian Medical Association Periodical, an older pregnant adult female faces an increased risk of certain conditions, such as gestational diabetes and preterm delivery of a baby with low birth weight.
The 2022 report also cited a study showing that the success rate of a clinical pregnancy using a frozen egg was only iv.five to 12 per cent.
This data was derived more often than not from eggs obtained from women younger than 30 years quondam.
In response to Channel NewsAsia's queries, the Ministry building of Social and Family Development (MSF) said that egg freezing, similar other assisted reproductive techniques, was "not a guaranteed solution to delaying parenthood".
"The risks of developing age-related complications during pregnancy are not mitigated by egg freezing," said a ministry spokesperson.
The ministry also had to exist "mindful" of the potential ethical and social implications associated with legalising egg freezing for non-medical reasons, added the spokesperson.
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"Fulfilling i's marriage and parenthood aspirations sooner increases the chances of conceiving children naturally," said MSF, calculation that age-related fertility problems can affect both men and women.
"At that place is no better substitute to having healthy children than when couples are relatively young and healthy," said the spokesperson.
MSF added that the Government was carefully reviewing the possibility of allowing egg freezing for non-medical reasons, while besides begetting in mind the diverse ethical and social implications.
NO NEED TO Be EMBARRASSED About FERTILITY TREATMENTS
Even though fertility might be considered a taboo topic in some Asian societies, women in Singapore are condign more than open in discussing this issue, said Dr Nair.
Despite the mutual misconception that egg freezing implied being a spinster, this is a not-result for women, he added.
"About women are across that, they don't care about that anymore," said Dr Nair.
"They say: 'I will choose who I want to marry … I don't demand men to support me. I am fully independent'."
He added that women – single or married - should non be embarrassed to talk almost their plans to take children.
Although some parents may sometimes be antagonistic towards fertility handling methods, a woman should be able to brand her own choices, said Dr Nair.
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The most mutual reactions women receive from family unit or friends about their decision to freeze their eggs are reactions like: "Don't be so choosy, yous just get someone lah", relayed Dr Nair.
Just for Chloe, people's opinions did not thing.
"It's a personal selection … Don't worry (about) what others say most it. Practice it for yourself," she said.
"Support from others is important, but yous need your own internal force and courage to do this."
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/social-egg-freezing-singapore-women-ivf-239161
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