There is
not always an opportunity to use fresh, not frozen eggs during IVF program.
Advertising articles assures us vitrification or eggs’ freezing is a modern
technique that allows specialists to save eggs and postpone indefinitely
fertilization process. But what is the quality of biological material after it’s
unfreezing?
Today European
states where IVF is allowed actively use frozen eggs which they often buy in
other countries. Egg donation is allowed not anywhere. And if it is legal there
are not too many those wishing to share their cells. Therefore Europe buys
donor eggs, for example, in Ukraine. There such procedures are clearly defined
in the local legislation, and there are many young healthy women ready to give
their eggs for certain fee.
But rather
important question arises - is needed eggs’ quality saved after unfreezing, and
will programs be successful using frozen material? Representative of American
community of Reproductive Medicine states: "Although analysis of
literature shows that cryopreservation technique is effective for women who
need it for medical reasons we cannot use it widely to plan pregnancy".
In fact
there is still doubt. Female germ cells are large and contain water. So after
their cooling (in particular, freezing) crystals are formed and distort
integrity of gametes. As a result, due to cell homeostasis disturbance most
part of biological material cannot be used for fertilization. Also there can be
cells’ defects which are not visible during transplantation. Such degeneration
of genetic material can significantly affect health condition of children in
future.
In spite
the fact Ukraine is a third world country, Ukrainian clinics have rather high
success rate of IVF programs. That is because doctors there use only fresh eggs
conducting in vitro fertilization. Results speak for themselves.
Center for Human Reproduction BioTexCom brings to life
dream of child of thousands infertile couples from all over the world. They come
to Kiev medical center and get desired result conducting a minimum number of
attempts. Fresh eggs is key to success, - says doctor of the center.
Embryologist of BioTexCom clinic notes: “I realize that thousands of patients
place their fates in my hands. It can be said I create infertile couples'
happiness and their future children. I always remember this fact and realize my
great responsibility. Entering embryology unit I understand that new life now
depends on me and my work. People come to us from around the world and usually they
visit our clinic after numerous unsuccessful attempts and being in do-or-die
condition. Working in the laboratory, I select only the highest quality,
healthy, fresh eggs for the program. As a result we reach positive result relatively
quickly”.
I'm new to FT. My husband and I have decided to go the fresh donor egg route. I'm 35 and due to the results of my tests and lab work, my RE mentioned to using donor eggs would be our best option. Soon we made our donor selection and were very excited. In a fresh donor egg IVF cycle, donor eggs are retrieved and immediately fertilized with the male partner’s sperm, with the resulting fresh embryos transferred to the recipient. For me, the con of working with fresh donor eggs is the wait. The donor’s menstrual cycle needs to be synchronized with the recipient’s, which could be a fairly time-consuming process.
ReplyDeleteThis is what doesn't come out of my head. We tried endo surgery while ivf cycling for our son. On the whole my lapo passed well. When they did the surgery, it was all very simple and straight forward. My kind surgeon decided to have a good look around in my insides and checked everywhere.
ReplyDeleteWhen I came to I was unbelievably sore. It felt like someone had turned my insides upside down and back to front. I had 2 shots of morphine after the surgery. Once I got home I had panadene forte. All up I was in hospital for just under 24 hours.
It took me about 3-4 weeks to recover enough to be able to lift a washing basket. I was very tender for the first 2 weeks. After the 5 week mark I was fine and healed really well.
I will suggest to go in with an open mind about healing time.
Give yourself as much as you need. Don't rush into trying to do things like picking up washing baskets etc. As you can do more damage and take longer to heal. Rest when you can. (This is something that I didn't get a chance to do. I suspect that's why it took longer to heal). Also if you can get people to help you, let them.