ASRM Issues Guidelines For Egg Freezing To Preserve Fertility For Some Young Women

Main Category: Fertility
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 24 Oct 2007 - 6:00 PDT

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The American Society for Reproductive Medicine recently issued guidelines recommending physicians provide women with a list of warnings about freezing their eggs for possible future use before conducting the procedure, the AP/Google.com reports.

According to the AP/Google.com, egg freezing was introduced more recently as a way of preserving fertility for young women and girls diagnosed with cancer or other serious conditions that could make them infertile. It also is marketed as a way to help women delay conception beyond age 35. However, eggs have high water content, and ice crystals can form during either the freezing or thawing process and can harm or destroy the eggs, the AP/Google.com reports. The procedure often costs more than $10,000. There have been about 500 births from thawed eggs worldwide, and ASRM estimated a 2% to 4% chance of a live birth for every thawed egg (Neergaard, AP/Google.com, 10/22).

Guidelines, Reaction
According to the guidelines, issued in a report by ASRM's Practice Committee, available data are insufficient to classify egg freezing as an established medical treatment, and the procedure should not be offered as a means of deferring reproductive aging. The committee recommended comprehensive counseling for any woman who might be considering egg freezing services (Reuters, 10/16).

In addition, the report recommended that all women considering the procedure be told about the possibility that none of the stored eggs will survive, the potential side effects from ovary-stimulating drugs used to retrieve eggs, and that women who freeze eggs before age 35 likely will never need to use them. Patients with cancer and other illnesses might be good candidates for egg freezing because they have no other options, the report found (AP/Google.com, 10/22).

"With any new technology, it is vital that patients understand completely what the process entails and the likelihood of a successful outcome," Marc Fritz, chair of the Practice Committee, said in a statement. "Women contemplating the use of egg freezing technologies need to receive extensive counseling to help them make a fully informed decision," he added (ASRM release, 10/16).

Richard Paulson -- director of the University of Southern California in vitro fertilization program, which freezes eggs from three to four healthy women monthly -- said most centers that freeze eggs agree the procedure remains experimental. "That doesn't mean that it shouldn't be made available," Paulson said, adding, "I inform them very carefully that this may be completely unnecessary ... that the technology may be so advanced five years from now there'll be something entirely new." Paulson also said the procedure's experimental designation requires fertility centers to track their outcomes to help facilitate assessments of the procedure's safety (AP/Google.com, 10/22).

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