Should I freeze my eggs? -Melanie A.

As I read Get me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to Sperm Bank by Randi Hutter Epstein this quote below made me think of the pros and cons of freezing your embryos and should I freeze my embryos in the future?

“Whose interest does egg freezing serve? ”

Process of Freezing Embryos:  The process of getting your embryos frozen is that the doctors are supposed take some blood samples and do other check ups on the first day, then you start taking self administered hormone injections for about two weeks. After two weeks of taking the administered hormone injection, you later take on hormone injections which helps the embryos to ripen. The final step is that the doctors remove the embryos with a needle and freeze the embryos immediately through a process call vitrification.

 

Pro(s):  So I decided to look up the pros and cons of freezing your embryos and what I got from my research is that the advantage of freezing your eggs is that they are healthy eggs and that they can last up to 10 years, so you can start a family whenever you would like to, and according to different studies that you’ll less likely have complications with a frozen embryo at the beginning of birth. Another advantage of freezing your embryos is that they are perfectly healthy and stay healthy, some women tend to get diseases/cancer and cant’t have kids anymore due to their illness but they still have their frozen embryos in storage. 

  Con(s):The disadvantages of  having your embryos frozen is that birth defects can happen during your pregnancy meaning that a physical/mentally disease/disorder can be present throughout your child’s life (examples: down syndrome, sickle cell disease, etc.). There can be difficulties as well when a mother decides to have a baby meaning, that the embryo transfer stage would have some difficulties for the embryo to pass through the cervix which could lead to the frozen embryo to go to waste. 

In conclusion, I don’t think I would freeze my eggs in the future because it is very a expensive procedure to do($10,000-$12,000/$800 month to keep in storage) and I don’t think I am going to want many kids in the future. I am not trying to say that you shouldn’t try to freeze your eggs because there are good reasons why you should freeze them.