Treatments

Description of available treatments

Egg freezing

Candidates for Egg Freezing

• Women faced with imminent premature menopause.

  Usually this is as a result of planned chemotherapy and /or radiotherapy for cancer patients. Not every woman will undergo premature menopause.

• Women faced with a future premature menopause.

  Some women wish to freeze oocytes for their daughters who have recently been diagnosed as having Turner syndrome. This condition results from a chromosome abnormality where only one female sex chromosome exists. The ovaries of women with Turner syndrome contain few, if any, eggs, and they often have a premature menopause before they even start periods.

• Patients undergoing IVF with moral concerns over embryo freezing.

  For some patients, freezing unfertilised oocytes avoids the moral dilemmas associated with freezing embryos. Most individuals have less difficulty disposing of unfertilized oocytes or perhaps even with donating excess unfertilized eggs to other patients.

• Women who may wish to delay motherhood.

  Ovarian failure due to delayed motherhood is an important cause of infertility. Fertility potential declines as a woman gets older and the reduction is significant after age 35 and worse after 39. Oocyte donation is an expensive treatment and not the first choice for many women. Storing your own oocytes may be a preferred choice.