Freeze your eggs when you are young to become mothers later, when life allows it. It is called social freezing, to distinguish it from freezing for health reasons, and it is a growing practice in Europe, including Italy, the United States and Australia, even if the absolute numbers are still quite low. On average, procedures have increased 25-30% per year since 2016 according to the American Society for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (SART) and the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), peaking at 46% and to 70% in the two-year period 2020 – 2021 respectively in the USA and Australia-New Zealand.
Freezing eggs to become a mother later: but how many succeed?
by our correspondent Elvira Naselli
High percentages, with still low absolute numbers: in Europe for example we went from 5000 procedures in 2016 to around 11 thousand in 2019 (Eshre data), in the USA from around 16 thousand in 2019 to around 25 thousand in 2021 but be careful: in these numbers there they are also the oocytes of women who have requested freezing before carrying out chemotherapy or other treatments with an impact on fertility. So social freezing risks being a truly laughable percentage.
The chances of success
But what are the chances of becoming a mother after cryopreservation? And why have many celebrities – like Bianca Balti recently – decided to give their daughters this opportunity? In fact, on the one hand the experts insist on age, a relevant factor also for freezing eggs and not just for trying to get pregnant, on the other hand they repeat that social freezing is an opportunity, but it’s not that women should think they have a son in the safe. An Italian study now investigates the rates of successful fertility preservation. The study, published on Fertility and Sterility, is edited by the Genera group which, with data from 8 clinics throughout the national territory, also reports an increase of around 20% year on year in the number of ‘social freezing’ procedures for Italy.
Fertility, egg freezing only for women with cancer. But the NHS must not forget the other patients
by Elvira Naselli
The new study highlights the chances of achieving a pregnancy at a later time using the collected eggs. “In younger women, therefore up to 35 years old – explains the first author of the paper, Danilo Cimadomo, molecular biologist and head of Research of the Genera group – the cumulative probabilities of births are between 70% with 15 oocytes collected and frozen (considered the optimal number) and 95% with 25 oocytes. But there are still chances of pregnancy between 30% and 45% if 8-10 oocytes are vitrified. Beyond the age of 35, the number of eggs needed to achieve pregnancy is clearly greater, making the fertility preservation procedure more challenging. For this reason, all specialized centers today advise women to make this choice, if deemed appropriate depending on their life plans, by the age of 35-37, in order to have the best chance of success if one day they have to use those frozen eggs, in case problems arise in trying to get pregnant.”
Breast cancer, pregnancy after diagnosis is increasingly possible
by Erica Manna
“The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) – intervenes Laura Rienzi, embryologist and scientific director of the Genera group – removed the label of experimental procedure from the vitrification of oocytes in 2013 and, also for this reason, the demand for this technique has increased significantly throughout the world. Vitrification, a freezing method that allows the viability and reproductive potential of oocytes to be preserved through exposure to very low temperatures (-196°C), has been confirmed to be a reproducible, safe and economical procedure, to the point of becoming the gold standard approach for fertility preservation. However, clinical results can still vary today depending on the countries and structures that practice it. In fact, to date, vitrification is mostly carried out manually, therefore requiring well-trained, constantly monitored and expert operators.”
Artificial intelligence
And where humans might fail, technology helps, allowing us to improve the results of medically assisted procreation techniques, including social freezing. “The need for in vitro fertilization treatments is constantly growing all over the world – continues Rienzi – in parallel technological advances, such as the evaluation of gametes based on artificial intelligence and automation, promise an ever greater standardization of protocols in years to come. Also thanks to the efforts that science is making in this direction, the cryopreservation of oocytes is a topic that is stimulating social and political debate in our country and we trust that it will soon no longer be perceived as a taboo, but as a tool to safeguard women’s reproductive autonomy”, concludes Rienzi.
#Social #freezing #number #women #freezing #eggs #increasing #pay #attention #age
– 2024-04-09 16:03:08
