A growing number of single Chinese women going abroad for their eggs frozen to keep their options open and control their pace of life, reported Wednesday an article in the New York Times .
Over the last three years, demand for such services has recorded an annual growth of 10-15% in the US.
Most clients are relatively wealthy Chinese women, educated and having thirty years. In the US, the oocyte freezing costs between $ 11 000 (€ 9,800) and 16,000 dollars. And storage costs cost between 450 and 600 dollars for the year.
Increasingly boards of companies have begun to capitalize on this trend, providing services to "help clients with their visa applications, the welcome at the airport, accommodation, translators and even Chinese speaking drivers" .
Some US clinics have even opened offices in China. Six doctors now work for HRC Fertility, a chain of clinics based in California, which now has offices in a dozen Chinese cities.
However, the New York Times estimated that the growing popularity of this procedure in women is not yet up to the results.
The article cites figures from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology: between 2009 and 2014, the number of cycles of freezing oocytes in the US increased from 568 to 6165. During this same period, the birth rate for "thawed" eggs was just under 24%.
"The quality and quantity of oocytes in women decline with age, especially after 34 years. And this procedure can have side effects. "
While this option freezing of oocytes was unknown to most Chinese women until last year, a heated debate on access to treatment against infertility and reproductive rights was triggered when the actress Xu Jinglei said on its Sina Weibo account, she went to the United States to freeze her eggs in 2013.
China bans against infertility treatments for unmarried women, and assisted reproductive technologies are not available for single women and couples, who are not in compliance with national regulations for family planning and population.
Reproductive medicine is highly regulated in China for ethical reasons. For over 30 years, the national family planning policy has limited most couples to have only one child, in a culture where boys are favored over girls. Surrogacy and trade in ova are also prohibited.
Seems quite a discussion.. Egg freezing can be beneficial for a number of reasons for women wishing to preserve their fertility for the future including: Women who want or need to delay childbearing in order to pursue educational, career or other personal goals. Women diagnosed with cancer. Women with objections to storing frozen embryos for religious and/or moral reasons. A woman in her prime reproductive years may feel confident about her family building timeline. Unfortunately, not every woman has a straightforward path to pregnancy, and some may wonder how long to wait before exploring fertility preservation. It takes approximately 3 weeks to complete the egg freezing cycle and is consistent with the initial stages of the IVF process including:
ReplyDelete1-2 weeks of birth control pills to temporarily turn off natural hormones (this step can be skipped if there is urgency, such as prior to cancer therapy).
9-10 days of hormone injections to stimulate the ovaries and ripen multiple eggs.
Once the eggs have adequately matured, they are removed with a needle placed through the vagina under ultrasound guidance. This procedure is done under intravenous sedation and is not painful. The eggs are then immediately frozen. When the patient is ready to attempt pregnancy (this can be several years later) the eggs are thawed, injected with a single sperm to achieve fertilization, and transferred to the uterus as embryos. if 10 eggs are frozen, 7 are expected to survive the thaw, and 5 to 6 are expected to fertilize and become embryos. Usually 3-4 embryos are transferred in women up to 38 years of age. We therefore recommend that 10 eggs be stored for each pregnancy attempt. Most women 38 years of age and under can expect to harvest 10-20 eggs per cycle.
Our doctor at Biotexcom clinic explained also these facts. Every woman from the moment she was born has 6-7 million egg cells. When she gets to reproductive age, about 10-12 egg cells get mature every month. But to become a donor a woman needs to donate more than 12 egg cell. This is why doctors use hormonal medications. They need about 30-40 egg cells which is not a big number comparing to 6-7 million exciting. It's enough for donation and her own children. This is the list of drugs causing super ovulation: Humegon, Repronex, Metrodin, Fertinex, Diphereline, Gonadotropin, Lupron. The donor's prescription depends on individual characteristics. All these drugs are hormones and their purpose is to temporarily increase the body's levels of estrogen, so the ovaries will develop more egg cells. Side effects are quite usual to face though. Among those: swelling, mood swings, depression, weight gain etc. Donors are brave women to put themselves through all this.
ReplyDeleteI'd go this path too if needed! It's much cheaper performing egg freezing overseas. Here one would better look onto European clinics. Ukraine for example as it is getting its high success rates in fertility treatments every other year. Qualified doctors and nurses know well what to do. Applying for help abroad is definitely worthy! Also going for other treatments like surrogacy, ivf, egg donation and so on. Too many benefits to consider!
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry poor things face national regulations for family planning and population. For me this sounds cruel. What is a young healthy woman wants to have more than just one kid of her own! So what? She is simply prohibited doing this- which is strange and cruel and terrifying for everyone's ear! So that's not surprising they seek ways out. And one of this ways is freezing eggs somewhere else in order to have hope to have more kids in future..This all is making me cry. Such natural things are restricted by a human which is totally unfair! Yet another thing to deal with - Surrogacy banned there. Sounds like their laws favour every other thing except humans' ones. Surrogacy is a great option to use nowadays, I'm sure. There are so many examples of structuring happy families this way throughout the world! Such a dilemma. Some are constantly looking for the ways of contributing to fulfilling families. Others - restricting it! Sounds weird!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they're doing this purely for lower money costs. It's much more expensive freezing their eggs in China, so they move abroad. This shows it's more affordable even adding travelling expenses. Furthermore European clinics are great. We were looking for the Eastern European one as it would be closer to home, and for low prises of course. This way we found Biotexcom where successfully underwent de ivf resulting in our beautiful daughter Andy. Everyone's looking for his best options..
ReplyDeleteFreezing eggs is pushing ladies to extend their period of fertility. So a woman could be sure of starting a family at a later date. As far as I know, it is legal for females who are 20. This is the legal age of marriage in China. But for those who decide to remain single to use medical ART to have a baby. But seems, this is not on the whole country's level which makes them go abroad. Sadly enough..
ReplyDeleteI agree. Ukrainian clinics are gaining more and more popularity. We've been through treatments with Biotexcom. The clinic has high-skilled professionals who use the latest practices and methods treating infertility. They seem to tackle even the most hopeless cases! Their medical programs were developed and thought out for a positive result only and without overpaying. They start the program only in the case of 100% sure of its success! It's a very rare thing to see, isn't it?!! We met couples from Germany, Italy, England, Switzerland and India there while passing the program. The clinic has the highest success rate and the lowest number of attempts and their unique guarantee. It's known to cooperate with scientists and GYNs from around the world, and put up money for researches in the field.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the statistics, Biotexcom is the leader among Ukrainian clinics for human reproduction.
So if anyone is considering ivf oe/de or surrogacy I strongly recommend this very repro center.