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Consequences of glamorizing egg freezing can at times be devastating

Consequences of glamorizing egg freezing

Choosing the right fertility center makes all the difference

Under the title, “Glamorizing egg freezing can have devastating consequences,” Angela Lawson, PhD, a clinical psychologist and associate clinical professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as Psychiatry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, recently wrote a highly relevant article in The Hill, considering many of the concerns we have repeatedly expressed in these pages over the last few years, as to how egg freezing is marketed and promoted to the public.

She very correctly noted that, “amidst the glitz and glamor of celebrities (announcing their interest in egg freezing) and swank parties, the truth about egg freezing has gotten lost.” She developed this insight from counseling large number of young women about egg donation who, as she noted, were made to believe that egg freezing was an “insurance policy” against future infertility; i.e., that it would later guarantee them 1-2 offspring at any age they desired.

Working at a well-known academic medical center, she, however, also became aware of the fact that, unfortunately only very slowly progressing research on egg freezing, offered a very different view on the efficacy of egg freezing: Even at young ages in early to mid-30s, there is never a guarantee of having at least one child, even with relative large egg numbers frozen. And once women reach age 40 or above, the number of eggs required to even get to reasonable percentages of likelihood for one pregnancy, becomes huge. Egg freezing only offers an “improved chance at conception in later life;” it certainly does not offer guarantees, and not even close to it! Moreover, the higher a likelihood one desires, the more eggs must be frozen and the more egg retrievals a woman, therefore, likely will have to undergo at a considerable expense.

In recently announcing CHR’s newly expanded Egg Freezing Program here in the VOICE, we made exactly the same points in even much more detail. As a clinical psychologist, Lawson also pays close attention to the psychological devastation women face once they learn that the frozen eggs they considered as their “insurance” had failed to make them pregnant. What are these women now left with? Usually by that point a few years older, it may be too late to retrieve additional eggs from their own ovaries. In some of the harshest language we have ever heard from a professional in the field, Lawson argues that, “medical and social communities have misled women for far too long about their realistic chances of getting pregnant.” We, here at CHR, of course, could not agree more!

We in these pages also have made the point that egg-freezing is a very good option for properly selected women who receive appropriate advice, informed consent and fully understand what they are pursuing at what cost. Where women get their egg freezing done, therefore, matters a great deal! To that end, we put together a list of 14 questions we suggest women ask before starting their egg freezing at a place that was recommended to them at an “egg-freezing-party.”

This is a part of the May 2018 CHR VOICE.

Norbert Gleicher, MD

Norbert Gleicher, MD, FACOG, FACS

Norbert Gleicher, MD, leads CHR’s clinical and research efforts as Medical Director and Chief Scientist. A world-renowned specialist in reproductive endocrinology, Dr. Gleicher has published hundreds of peer-reviewed papers and lectured globally while keeping an active clinical career focused on ovarian aging, immunological issues and other difficult cases of infertility.

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