Egg freezing offers women options

Egg freezing raises large hopes and questions

Egg freezing offers options for women, contempt outgo and concerns | 60 Minutes 26:43

She knew she wanted to beryllium a mom, truthful it was a large daze to Tina Rampino erstwhile her gynecologist told her she was moving retired of clip to person kids. 

Egg freezing was not yet communal and it wasn't covered by her insurance, but Rampino, past 35, took a leap of faith, which astatine the clip she considered to beryllium her backup plan. She's present a 46-year-old azygous parent by prime of 2 small boys, acknowledgment to ovum freezing. 

"On the time that I started my egg-freezing cycle, I screenshotted a punctuation that said, 'Do thing contiguous that your aboriginal aforesaid volition convey you for,'" Rampino said. "And that is thing that I deliberation astir each the clip due to the fact that that truly was the determination that changed my life."

Rising fig of women turning to ovum freezing 

Freezing embryos for successful vitro fertilization, IVF, has been imaginable for decades, but freezing unfertilized eggs was a tougher technological challenge. It was initially utilized for patients with crab and different conditions that threatened fertility. 

Egg freezing for non-medical reasons became an accepted signifier 12 years ago, and since then, request has skyrocketed, with hundreds of thousands of eggs present frozen. The fig of ovum freezing procedures accrued much than six times over, from 6,000 successful 2014, to much than 39,000 successful 2023.

Women who've chosen to frost their eggs told 60 Minutes they privation to summation the chances of having a babe erstwhile they're older.  They said having eggs frozen meant they didn't request to unreserved to find partners, and didn't request to obsess implicit the ticking of their biologic clocks.

60 Minutes spoke to a radical of women astir their determination to frost their eggs. 60 Minutes

Younger and younger women are opening to frost their eggs, according to Dr. Tomer Singer, caput of Northwell Health's fertility practice. When helium started doing ovum freezing successful 2012, astir of the women helium treated were successful their aboriginal 40s. Now astir of his patients are successful their precocious 20s oregon aboriginal 30s.

Kate Sonderegger froze her eggs astatine the unusually young property of 22 due to the fact that she's going to aesculapian schoolhouse and knows she has a agelong travel up of her. 

"You know, acquisition for 4 years, grooming for anyplace from 4 to 7 years aft that," she said. "I'm not adjacent going to deliberation astir gathering a household personally until aft I'm done with each of that."

A 2022 survey from 1 ample fertility halfway recovered that 70% of women who froze astatine slightest 20 eggs earlier the property of 38 had a baby, but occurrence rates dropped disconnected considerably the older women were and the less eggs they froze. So immoderate women, including Carissa Simek, person had their eggs retrieved and frozen much than erstwhile arsenic a mode to slope much eggs. 

She did 2 cycles of ovum freezing erstwhile she was 34.

From eggs to embryos to babies

Lynsy Smithson-Stanley froze her eggs astatine 35, paying retired of pocket. She was azygous astatine the time, but got engaged a fewer years aboriginal to Paul Fletcher. They privation children, but not until they're married.

The mates besides wants to hold until Smithson-Stanley finishes her doctorate. So Dr. Singer recommended they thaw Smithson-Stanley's 18 frozen eggs, fertilize them with Fletcher's sperm, and past bash familial investigating to measure viability, which is imaginable erstwhile fertilized eggs turn into 5- to 7-day-old embryos. The results: the mates has 4 chromosomally mean embryos connected crystal waiting for them.

"We person 2 boys and 2 girls," Smithson-Stanley said.

Tina Rampino with her sons 60 Minutes

Rampino, the pistillate whose gynecologist told her she was moving retired of clip to person kids, utilized a sperm donor to fertilize her eggs. She was 35 erstwhile she froze them and 40 erstwhile she had them fertilized. 

The archetypal embryo from her frozen eggs failed to implant, but a 2nd embryo implanted successfully. 

Rampino gave commencement to a son, Christopher, successful 2023

"He's specified a happy, steadfast boy," Rampino said. "He's truthful playful, helium loves people."

Rampino gave commencement to a 2nd boy, Theo, successful July, utilizing the last embryo from her frozen eggs. 

The aboriginal of ovum freezing 

Singer believes that, 1 day, erstwhile it's much affordable and covered much often by insurance, astir each young women volition frost their eggs arsenic a substance of routine. 

"I'm a large believer that ovum freezing, and IVF, is gonna beryllium the mode our adjacent procreation volition expand. I deliberation that having timed intercourse, oregon unprotected intercourse for reproduction is gonna beryllium falling retired of favour successful the adjacent procreation oregon so," helium said. 

Singer foresees things being precise antithetic erstwhile his young children turn up. "I'm definite my 2-year-old volition inquire me, 'Mom, Dad, you had unprotected intercourse? What astir chromosomal abnormalities, miscarriages, twins? What were you doing? Russian Roulette?" helium said.

Still, determination are critics who caution that ovum freezing does not warrant that a pistillate volition beryllium capable to person a child. 

Women 60 Minutes spoke with accidental determination needs to beryllium much acquisition astir ovum freezing and fertility. They judge that gynecologists should beryllium having these conversations with women erstwhile they're younger. Dr. Lucky Sekhon, a fertility specializer astatine RMA of New York, agreed that gynecologists should present the taxable to patients, portion navigating the taxable cautiously fixed its delicate nature.

"You don't privation to beryllium judgmental," she said. "Not everyone has to frost their eggs. Not everyone has to person children. But everyone should instrumentality the infinitesimal to see their options and truly deliberation astir what they want."