Egg Freezing Will Help Women Develop Their Professional Careers
For countless women pursuing professional goals, dreams of having children have been put on hold. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, births by women aged 35 and older have risen 56 percent in the last decade, as have rates of birth defects and miscarriages. Freezing eggs is a new method that allows women to postpone childbearing until they are more set in their careers — without the fear that they will be less fertile or risk their child having birth defects.
The best time for a woman to have a child is between the ages of 20 and 34, but on average, people have around seven different jobs during their 20s alone. Most women are therefore not ready to settle down at a younger age, and getting pregnant later on in life is much more difficult. According to the CDC, 50 percent of women over 40 will have trouble conceiving a child, and 25 percent of women over 35 have miscarriages. Freezing a woman’s eggs during her childbearing age circumvents problems of later-in-life conception.
In addition, the risk of having a child with diagnoses of autism, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia increase drastically with a mother’s age. According to researchers, the breakdown of cohesin proteins causes the uneven splitting of chromosomes, which leads to birth defects. Freezing eggs when they are most fertile and have their cohesin proteins intact reduces this risk.
Egg-freezing technology is a justified application of current scientific discoveries that will allow women to make strides in the professional sector while preserving the opportunity to have healthy children later on in life.
— Revathy Sampath-Kumar
Senior Staff Writer
Procedure Has Not Been Tested Enough to Be Marketed As Viable
The fact that the San Diego Fertility Center now advertises egg freezing as a way for a woman “to preserve her fertility until she is ready to start a family” should ring alarm bells. Despite recent developments, this technology has not been tested or researched enough to be marketed as a viable option for family planning.
As published by the Scientific American journal, only four randomized clinical trials have been conducted since the first pregnancy from frozen embryos in 1986. The American Society of Reproductive Medicine may have removed the “experimental” label from oocyte cryopreservation, but that does not mean they endorse its elective use to delay childbearing. The ARSM still classifies this technology as “investigational” given that very little is known about its long-term effects.
It is worrying that the removal of the “experimental” label is seen by many as a green light to reproductive clinics. While potentially a welcome advancement for patients who have no other reproductive possibilities available, such as women undergoing cancer treatments, freezing eggs should not be used for the sole purpose of circumventing reproductive aging in healthy women. The Practice Committee stresses that the age of the woman at the time of egg freezing is a very important factor and that success rates decline with age — a fact that may be overlooked by many women if this practice becomes mainstream.
Freezing eggs may be a convenient option for some, but it should not be advertised as the best option for ambitious professional women. Biological clocks were not built to be rewound.
— Mia Florin-Sefton
Staff Writer
If Medically Safe, Egg Freezing Can Be Utilized As a Useful Technology
The process of egg freezing has stirred a debate that questions its legitimacy, repeating a similar historical trend like the outrage over the birth control pill in the 1960s. However, if egg freezing is medically safe, there is no reason for women to yield from utilizing this technology.
Allegations that egg freezing leads to birth defects go against the data. According to an October 2012 report by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, out of 100 babies analyzed during a four-year trial period, there were no reported increases in chromosome abnormalities or birth defects. These egg freezer babies were shown to be no different from those born naturally.
Two medical advancements — egg freezing and the birth control pill — are following similar patterns in terms of public perception. When the birth control pill was first introduced, it was made taboo over claims that it allowed women to be sexual playthings for men.
Today, fifty years later, over 100 million women are on birth control, according to the Mayo Clinic. The Pill has enabled millions of women to empower themselves with distinct choice, contrary to the initial outcry; it is even publicly funded in many parts of the world, including the United States. The notion of egg freezing may seem ludicrous to many now, but in the future it may even be viewed as a useful, everyday tool.
Because immediate data show no health concerns, egg freezing holds chances of emerging from the debate as a social norm, just like the birth control pill. Since it hasn’t been proven to harm, there is no reason to abstain from taking advantage of this modern day technological advancement.
— Vivek Patel
Staff Writer