By Rebecca Richardson Basket CaSe
process of egg preservation for non-medical reasons, but it also has an ironic double-meaning. It has become a legitimate social trend, with clinics throwing lavish parties in New York and other major cities, allowing women to get an idea of the benefits of egg freezing. Women all across the United States have been researching and booking their own appointments. Celebrities like The Bachelorette’s Kaitlyn Bristowe and actresses like Olivia Munn, Sofia Vergara, and Whitney Cummings have taken to social media announcing that they have had the procedure done because, in Bristowe’s words, “[They’re] taking control of [their] future.” Before even starting the process, women must undergo blood tests to screen for infectious diseases, and for ovarian reserve testing to determine the quantity and quality of their eggs. Then, the process moves on to ovulation induction, which requires the patient to inject herself daily with synthetic hormones at the start of her menstrual cycle. The synthetic hormone stimulates the body to produce multiple eggs for the cycle rather than just the single egg that is normally developed each month. Throughout this part of the treatment, the patient has several appointments with her doctor for vaginal ultrasounds and blood tests to evaluate how her estrogen levels and body are responding. The next step is egg retrieval; which is done under sedation, either in the clinic or doctor’s office. Typically, transvaginal ultrasound-guided follicular aspiration is a process in which a probe is inserted into the vagina to identify the follicles with eggs, and then a needle with a suction end is inserted into the vagina to remove the eggs. This process of removing the eggs from the follicles can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. After this part of the procedure, the side effects can include severe cramping, and pressure in the lower abdomen because the ovaries remain enlarged. The grand finale of this process is the freezing. Once the eggs are harvested, they are immediately placed in liquid nitrogen to stop all biological activity, preserving them for future use. From beginning to end, the whole process takes about three weeks. Just like any surgery, egg freezing is risky. One of the main risks associated with this type of procedure is mild to severe ovarian hyperstimulation
Miguel de Cervantes said in the novel Don Quixote , “It is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket.” Young women are practicing this wisdom in great numbers, but they’re ditching the basket and trying the freezer instead. Oocyte cryopreservation, also known as egg freezing, is the process by which women have their eggs extracted, frozen, and stored with the hope of preserving them for reproductive purposes later in life. Previously, this procedure was intended for women who were experiencing complications reproducing naturally. Now, this procedure is targeted toward women in their 20s and 30s as more and more of them delay starting a family until later in life. A woman’s eggs are considered to be at their prime from 22 to 26. But now, young adults are maturing emotionally and socially at a different rate than previous generations and aren’t entering into early adulthood until 28 or 29. A multitude of women are seeking out this procedure because of three major life factors: finances, career, and perhaps most importantly, the nebulousness of Millennial dating. Growing numbers of people want to delay “settling down” until later to figure out what they want to do, where they want to be, and who they really want to be with—if anyone. One of these women is Jennifer Lannon, co-founder of the company Freeze Health, the Yelp of egg freezing clinics. Reflecting on young women her own age, Lannon said, “I feel like we have decision paralysis—we don’t want to commit to one idea just yet.” Lannon’s own self-growth through her early twenties led her to discover where she wanted to live, who her true friends were, the things that brought her happiness, and a career that would fulfill her. However, Lannon says there is one puzzle piece she has yet to understand: the dating world. Lannon says, “I still think if I found my person tomorrow and got pregnant, I wouldn’t want that. I still would want to explore and do more before making that commitment.” Since 2012, when the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) announced that they would no longer consider oocyte cryopreservation to be experimental, the popularity of this procedure increased exponentially. Social egg freezing is the clinical term used to describe the
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