“This is not a popular technique among women in our country and people are ashamed to talk about it. I feel that in next few years trend will increase like woman opting for cosmetic surgery. There are few queries on egg freezing in my clinic, however only one or two women are opting for this procedure,” said Dr. Bina Joshi, gynaecologist with a super-specialty hospital for women in Patna.

Physiologists believe that this is an increasing trend among working women- both single and married. Generally they want to delay pregnancy for the sake of their careers. Some women are opting for late marriages or are not able to find the right person for marriage. Another reason is fat pay. These days, women draw handsome salaries and they are not hesitating to use it in near future.

“Working women hardly think about their age-related infertility. As they prefer to have her first child at around 35 years, their ability to conceive starts dropping considerably, and fewer eggs are left in ovaries. But today, there are latest IVF techniques helping women to bear child at the age of 45 years. It is also not easy to opt for egg freezing as woman faced harmful effects like weight gain, hormonal changes, cramping etc. Most insurance companies don’t cover these techniques, although they occasionally cover medications used during treatment,” added Dr Joshi.

Egg freezing has its benefits, like it offers women more time to choose life partner, reduce risk of hereditary and chromosomal deformity, provide better opportunities of financial stability to child, allows women and couples to have another child if conditions change, egg donation may fetch good amount and may increase eggs and embryo pool.

The process of egg freezing takes two-five weeks and more from injecting hormones to stimulate ovulation, eggs retrieval and preservation at minus 196 degree Celsius temperature for future use. On an average, a woman ovulates an egg monthly and hormones are injected to induce multiple ovulations during the whole process. These eggs are monitored with the help of ultrasound, blood hormone testing and evaluation of tissue to ensure their qualities and quantity.  After this, these eggs collected from the ovaries of women with the help of special procedure, which is not painful, can be stored for up to ten years in liquid nitrogen.

The process in India is available in few multi-speciality hospitals for in-vitro fertilisation (IVFs). It costs around 1.5 lakh to 2.0 lakh rupees annually for egg banking system. According to experts, there is chance of having a baby in one out of three eggs. However, others claim success rates are as high as 50 percent.

Most experts agree that success depends on the woman’s age, number of eggs removed from ovaries and fertilization techniques. Unfortunately, eggs have more limits than drive and determinations. Before opting and investing in it, women must be familiar with fertility alternative by initiating a dialogue with the gynaecologist and researchers in IVFs clinics.