Women are taking charge of their careers and families with this egg-freezing reproductive strategy

As more women delay, the science (and the business) of keeping their options open is flourishing.

By: STEPHANIE MARIS

Research puts the optimum age for a woman to conceive her first child, physiologically speaking, at seventeen. It’s hardly surprising that from a  financial, psychological and lifestyle standpoint, that schedule is proving incompatible with the way many women lead their lives.

And while there are advantages to delaying pregnancy, waiting can hurt a woman’s chances of natural conception. Let’s look at the odds. A woman is born with  approximately 400 eggs, a lifetime supply. These age as she does, and decline slowly in quality and quantity. Women aged 20-24 have an  approximately 80 per cent chance of conceiving naturally. By the time they reach 35, this has dropped to about 50 per cent. By the age of 45 the chance of conception drops to a relatively slim eight per cent.

Thankfully, a women looking to take charge of her fertility has options. The key,  according to experts, is to begin planning early, as fertility programs and procedures require time and significant psychological and financial investment. Some treatments cost upwards of $15,000, including counseling.

Driving the science are breakthroughs in assisted reproductive  technology aimed at allowing previously “infertile” couples to conceive. Procedures such as artificial insemination help women with partners who cannot conceive naturally or who are prepared to begin their families without a partner through the donor process. Now, women can invest in  egg-freezing programs that essentially preserve their fertility.

LifeQuest, a Toronto-based reproductive clinic, has been offering an egg-freezing program to clients since 2003. Also known as “Oocyte Cryopreservation,” the treatment originated as an emergency procedure for women who face an impending fertility struggle, such as  cancer patients preparing to undergo damaging treatments.

Recently, however, the company has begun offering a new elective program to women aged 19-36. This program allows LifeQuest clients to freeze unfertilized eggs until they decide they are ready to start a biological family of their own.

“Most (if not all) women who come to me are single with no partner – I would say the  average age is about 35 – and they’re panicking,” says LifeQuest RN Jocelyn Smith. “I say to them: we could do the whole egg-freezing thing, you could meet that man and decide that you want to have children and get pregnant right away on your own and never use the eggs — so it’s $8,600  as an insurance policy.”

Programs like these offer the first big option since birth control 50 years ago to women who want to pursue careers without damaging their chances to conceive later in life.

Smith says this “insurance policy” can help to alleviate the stress that is one of the many  emotions experienced by individuals undergoing in vitro fertilization. Studies have shown that during one 6-week IVF cycle, moods will alternate between elation and sadness, confidence and worry, frustration and relief, hope and despair, guilt and blame.

Smith encourages couples that are  experiencing difficulty conceiving to seek professional help as soon as possible for both their physical and emotional health.

“If you start in your  30s and you try to get pregnant — or even in your 20s — and you don’t get pregnant it gives us in fertility centers time to figure it out. We’re not  rushing against a clock.”

Time is of the essence in fertility treatment. The younger the ovum, the more fertile the ovum; according to researchers the ideal time for a woman to freeze her eggs is from her 20s to early 30s, with 37 the general cutoff age.

In addition to age and genetics, a  mounting list of factors can hinder fertility in couples including environmental factors and eating habits as major causes, including: obesity, stress, pollution, and even preservatives in food.

IVF procedures offer hope to couples struggling to conceive, as well as to women choosing to delay  pregnancy for their careers. Like any procedure, however, IVF does involve serious risk during and after treatment. Pregnancies in women over 35 are significantly more dangerous for the mother and child.

Most of the risks associated with egg freezing are with the fertility drugs, says Smith.  These drugs, self administered by the client, allow specialists to literally schedule the woman’s fertility by essentially “shutting down and  rebooting the client’s ovaries.”

Patients are initially assessed with blood workups and ultrasounds. They are placed on birth control and taught how to self-inject the hormonal drugs. A steady schedule of injections and careful monitoring is set in place for 11-12 days, and on the 12th-14th day the clinic performs ovum retrieval.

The intense hormonal treatment is due in part to what Smith refers to as the “80-80-80 rule”: Of the ova  that are frozen, roughly 80 per cent will thaw successfully; 80 per cent of those will fertilize, and 80 per cent of the remaining ova will continue on to the next developmental stages.

Despite the growing popularity of fertility treatment, Smith cautions against women depending solely on the innovative egg-freezing procedure, which involves powerful drugs.

“I think it’s wonderful that they have that option but I don’t want them to start  relying on it,” she says. “We’re kind of going against nature here when we do some of the things that we do.”

DAY 0: Ultrasound & Blood Tests. Fertility drugs prescribed

DAYS 1-3: Self-injection of drugs in evening

DAY 4: Blood Tests at LifeQuest, Self-injection in evening

DAY 5: Self-injections in evening

DAY 6: Ultrasound, Blood Test & Assessments.

DAY 7: Self-injections in evening

DAY 8: Ultrasound, Blood Test & Assessments

DAY 9: Self-injections in evening

DAY 10: Ultrasound, Blood Tests & Assessments. Based upon results, receive pre-ovum retrieval instructions as well as self-administered hCG (a  pregnancy hormone) injection along with regular Lupron injection.

DAY 11-12: If hCG administered later than day 10, hCG administered with final Lupron injection.

DAY 13-14: Ovum retrieval performed 34-36 hours after hCG injection