Elective Egg-Freezing: Achieving a Well-Informed Decision

In 10 seconds? Assisted reproduction techniques offer women the option to come up with strategies in the face of fertility loss. This is the case of own-egg freezing by young women, who do not want to make an early decision about motherhood and want to have the opportunity to choose and control their own bodies.

First of all, could you explain own-egg freezing? Of course! Egg freezing (or oocyte cryopreservation, as it is called in the scientific field) is a common procedure carried out by a specialist in the fertility clinic. It consists of egg retrieval from ovaries (under anesthesia, of course!) and freezing and storing them to be used later. Egg cryopreservation is a safe technique where the frozen eggs (correctly: cryopreserved eggs) are maintained in liquid nitrogen (at -196ºC!) and can be kept in this state for decades. Only in the UK, there has been a 460% increase in egg-freezing cycles in a recent six year period. In the US the spike was even more spectacular – 2500% - between 2009 and 2018.