A Complete Guide To Freezing Your Eggs
The field of egg freezing is rapidly expanding as a medical procedure and a business. It’s crucial for those interested in this option to know more about egg freezing. Collection and freezing of eggs is not just a futuristic outlook on resolving fertility issues but also ensures a healthy baby. It is wise to know what to consider when choosing a clinic for egg freezing.
The Best Egg Freezing Facility
Egg freezing should be risk-free when conducted under the right conditions. There are factors to consider in ensuring the best practices for harvesting and the integrity of the eggs until the day they will be required for implantation. Some consideration factors include;
1. Financial Service or Medical Advice
A visit to a fertility facility qualifies as a medical appointment. The patient seeks advice on the procedure and all aspects of egg freezing. A patient should consider it a red flag when the contact person or doctor sounds like a salesperson. Such personnel will consistently pressurise the patient to take up the procedure without giving adequate medical advice and time for the patient to digest the information provided, if any.
Some facilities front a non-physician staff to talk to patients about the procedures. Considering the complexity of egg freezing as a medical procedure, patients should choose clinics where they can verify that they are dealing with relevantly qualified medical professionals who give medical advice and not sales talk.
2. Medical History and Tests
Prudent and experienced fertility experts will take a detailed medical history of the patient. There should be tests to establish the level of performance of the ovaries considering the age and health of the patient and the occurrence of any previous fertility issues. It should raise concern if, during the assessment, the physician or interviewer does not enquire about the number of children the patient wishes to have.
3. Willingness to Explore Alternatives
The clinic’s personnel should encourage or educate the patient on other fertility preservation options besides egg freezing. Such alternatives include natural methods for preserving fertility, ovarian health, and tissue freezing. The patient should receive all the information possible about fertility to make an informed decision—denial of such information points to shady practices of a facility.
4. Acceptable Egg-Thawing Statistics
The egg thawing and freezing rates are the numbers that show the number of mature eggs that remain viable after freezing and thawing. If the centre has no figures to disclose or is unwilling to reveal them, or the rates fall below 80%, it is time to explore other more serious fertility facilities.
5. The Clinic’s General Condition and Resources
If a patient enquires whether the facility has adequate resources for the whole egg-freezing procedure, the centre should not shy away from giving the patient a tour of the clinic. The patient should establish the availability of an egg retrieval area and storage for the frozen eggs at the centre. Therefore, the best facility should not ship the eggs outside for any reason.
Suppose the facility outsources other centres for the long-term storage of eggs. In that case, it should explain their location, the transportation used to get the eggs there, and the assurance of the security and health of the eggs at that station during that duration. The best option is an IVF centre with the expected full services and all the functional resources within its premises.
6. Check the Figures
Egg freezing is often expensive. Some clinics may fail to reveal the total costs involved. Any hidden fees can derail the procedure or cause inconvenience to a patient due to unforeseen expenses. A good facility should disclose all the costs involved through all the processes.
The egg collection and freezing procedure requires multiple attempts, and the clinic should inform the patient about it. The patient should compare with other facilities, knowing there’s more to choosing a medical facility beyond cost implications.
Conclusion
Even with all those considerations, the patient should carefully enquire to establish that a fertility centre meets the mandatory conditions for accreditation. The staff should have the necessary qualifications and certifications. Failure to follow due diligence can turn egg freezing into a traumatising, costly, and time-wasting ordeal.
