Today, women tend to have a later childbearing. For some reason, a woman tries to postpone pregnancy and childbirth. Most often this is due to the desire to achieve financial independence, climb the career ladder, or simply with the absence of a suitable partner. It is for such cases that cryopreservation of eggs is envisaged. This technology increases the chances of having a healthy child at a later age. And when carrying out IVF cryopreservation has already become a common and common practice.
What is cryopreservation?
The cryopreservation of an egg is the process of its storage in a frozen form, with the restoration of functions after defrosting. Previously, the cryoconservation of female sex cells was inadvisable, since the method of slow freezing was used. It was very difficult not to damage the membrane structure due to crystallization during the cooling process. As a result, most cells were not viable after cryopreservation-thawing.
The vitrification method is now being introduced for cryopreservation of oocytes (sex cells). Thanks to this method, the egg is frozen fairly quickly, bypassing the stage of the formation of crystals, which destroyed its structure. The survival of eggs with this cooling has increased dramatically. What makes vitrification a promising technique in the field of reproductive medicine.
Advantages of cryopreservation of eggs
Cryopreservation of eggs has a number of advantages both of an ethical and physiological nature:
- A woman can freeze her young eggs, and give birth to a child at a more mature age. We can say that ovules lose their quality over the years. And at 20 years, a woman is much more likely to give birth to a healthy baby, than in 35-40.
- There is a sense of cryopreserved oocytes for medical reasons. For example, oncology before chemotherapy, women suffering from endometriosis (a disease causing ovarian dysfunction).
- It is rational to use such a freeze in the cycle of IVF. After stimulating ovulation, a woman can mature to 15 eggs, while only two embryos can be inserted into the uterus. The rest can be left in case of miscarriage or if there is a desire to give birth to another child. Cryopreservation of an egg will cost cheaper and safer for a woman than anew to carry out the procedure of stimulation, puncture and so on.
- For ethical reasons, egg freezing is better than cryopreservation of finished embryos . Due to the fact that at the end of time in people's lives, much is changing. Spouses can part or there is still a lot of reasons why embryos remain unclaimed by their genetic parents. This entails many problems for the medical center, where frozen embryos are stored, as modern legislation does not yet provide for such situations.
According to all of the above, it can be concluded that the cryopreservation of eggs is a fairly progressive technique in the reproductive sector. Vitrification of the cells makes it possible for oncological women to experience the joy of motherhood. This is an excellent chance for childless couples to become parents of not even one baby. Also, single women give hope in the future to become the mother of a healthy baby.
According to statistics, children born with the help of cryotechnology are no different from those conceived in the usual, natural way. Frost does not increase the risk of developing congenital pathologies. On the contrary, we can note the tendency of natural selection, since after the cooling-thaw process only qualitative oocytes survive.