In recent days, there are things we can do to make ourselves look and feel younger. But we can’t stop the biological clock, especially women.
When it comes to fertility there are things that you need to be aware of.
If you want to have a child in the future but are not ready to become pregnant right now, then choosing to freeze your eggs could be a good option for a woman.
Egg freezing is a method of storing a woman’s unfertilized eggs, to use them in future. It may be seen as a way of preserving potential fertility.
An IVF specialist Moses Kimani from Myra IVF says there’s a lot to consider about whether freezing your eggs is right for you, noting that it’s better to understand your options when it comes to Elective Egg Freezing.
To obtain eggs for freezing, a woman undergoes hormonal stimulation to stimulate a group of eggs (usually 10–15) to mature.
There are a variety of stimulation techniques for this and your fertility specialist will decide, in discussion with you, which is the most appropriate for you.
"The eggs are later removed from the ovaries by ultrasound-guided probe whilst the patient is asleep under sedation. Attached to the ultrasound probe is a needle guide. The fine needle passes through the vaginal wall into the ovary and draws the fluid (and egg) from the ovary," Dr Kimani says.
"The number and quality of the eggs that develop when the ovaries are stimulated decline with increasing age. A woman in her early thirties might have 15-20 eggs available for freezing after the hormone stimulation, but for women in their late thirties and early forties, the number is usually much lower. Also, as women age, they are more likely to have eggs with chromosomal variations."
As a woman ages, the quality and quantity of her eggs decline.
For the 10 to 15 years before menopause, despite having regular monthly periods, ovarian function declines.
This is especially so for women in their 40s who are unlikely to produce a healthy pregnancy.
Dr Sarita Sukhija a Gynecologist - IVF and Fertility Specialist at Myra IVF recommends that a woman should freeze her eggs in her 20s and early 30s when her ovaries still contain a large number of healthy eggs and is most fertile.
"A woman who freezes 10 eggs under the age of 35 has a higher chance while a woman who freezes 10 eggs at the age of 44 has a lower chance of having a baby," Sukhija says.
"The chance of live birth from frozen vitrified eggs is similar to the chance from fresh eggs which are usually used in IVF treatment."
She says the two most important factors that determine the chance of having a baby from frozen eggs are your age when your eggs are frozen and the number of eggs that are stored.
The eggs undergo a freezing procedure known as vitrification in the IVF laboratory.
This process involves immersing each egg in a series of special fluid solutions to protect its cellular structure, followed by storage in freezing tanks of liquid nitrogen.
He says eggs may be stored for as long as one wishes.
When the woman is ready to use her eggs, they are thawed and then fertilized with sperm.
However, just as there are many advantages of egg freezing Dr Kimani cautions that there are potential risks.
Bleeding and infection are very rare complications of the egg retrieval procedure.
A small proportion of women have an excessive response to the fertility drugs that are used to stimulate the ovaries.
In rare cases, this causes ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), a potentially serious condition.
Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome occurs when a woman's ovaries swell and leak fluid into the body.
This condition is a complication that can occur in women who receive fertility treatments that stimulate the ovaries to produce more eggs than usual, but there are rare cases of OHSS occurring spontaneously.
In 2012, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine lifted the experimental tag from egg freezing, since the process had become safe and extremely effective for using harvested eggs for in-vitro fertilization.
Dr Sarita says that egg freezing is becoming a norm for working women across the world, Kenyan women should embrace egg freezing since the country has the facilities to help them do so.
"Career-working women can now focus on their careers, knowing they have a chance of having children later in life," she says
