A woman is born with a finite number of eggs. The number and quality of eggs decline as she ages. This means her chances of getting pregnant naturally decreases as she age. But egg freezing preserves fertility, to an extent, because the egg’s age remains unchanged from the moment it is frozen

Freezing a woman’s eggs, scientifically known as oocyte cryopreservation, is a process that involves stimulating the ovaries with injections of hormonal drugs, so the ovaries produce multiple eggs. “After about 10 days of injections, most women are ready for egg collection. This is usually done under general anesthesia and takes about 20 minutes. Patients can go home shortly after that,” explains Dr Andrew Kan, Fertility Specialist at Virtus Fertility Centre.

After the eggs have been extracted, they are examined in a lab and mature eggs are frozen. Most clinics use a flash-freezing method called vitrification that freezes eggs at 1190 Celcius in under one minute. Vitrifaction is preferred nowadays because it has a much higher survival rate for eggs after they are thawed.

In Singapore, only legally married couples will be able to use their frozen eggs to try for a baby through IVF

While the egg removal procedure itself is considered safe, the intensive hormone shots can raise a woman’s risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, or OHSS. This happens when a woman’s body reacts too strongly to the hormone shots. Her ovaries become swollen and painful and she will experience a tender stomach, nausea and vomiting. In severe cases, OHSS increases the risk of kidney failure and blood clots and can even be fatal.

OHSS tends to happen in younger women in their 20s and 30s, and experts say it occurs in less than five per cent of patients.

Egg Freezing is not a fertility guarantee. The chance of a frozen egg leading to a baby being born is about 2 percent to 12 per cent, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Other studies put the figure at about 10 per cent to 50  percent, at best.

The reality is that the success of IVF is based on a number of factors, including a woman’s age, the age and quality of her eggs, and the quality of her partner’s sperm. Says Dr Kan, “The most important thing is the age of the woman when the eggs were frozen – she’s ideally less than 35 years old. And the actual number of eggs frozen – ideally 20 or more. There are also other considerations that affect the success rate, including her partner’s factors and her uterine factors.”

There are also no large studies on how long you can freeze eggs. Current studies into frozen eggs used for IVF  treatment focus on eggs that have been frozen for a few weeks or months, not years.  However, experts point out that technology is always advancing. “Vitrification of eggs is one of the biggest advancements in egg freezing. Before this we had a slow freezing technique, which did not yield a good survival rate for the eggs, ” says Dr Kan.

Some women choose to freeze their eggs for medical reasons. For example, ovarian cysts or endometriosis can affect how well the ovaries work. And cancer treatment can be toxic to the ovaries and cause premature menopause.

Other women just haven’t found Mr Right yet.  Dr Kan says some of his clients, “Are concerned about their future fertility and their current relationship or work commitment not enabling them to have a baby right away.”

Less than 10 per cent of women actually go on to use their frozen eggs to try for a baby, according to some overseas studies. It could be that some women get pregnant naturally, or they adopt? Or maybe they decide life circumstances make it impossible for them to have a baby? No one knows the exact reasons why.

As far back as 2012, the Ministry of Health said it was reviewing the medical, scientific, and ethical implications of social egg freezing. In 2019, the Ministry of Social and Family Development said it was “carefully reviewing” social egg freezing. And in July 2021. the PAP Women’s Wing and Young PAP asked the Government to allow elective egg freezing.

But such careful thought is necessary. Egg freezing needs a healthy bank balance and a healthy body. The estimated cost of one cycle of egg freezing is S$10,000. Plus you need to pay monthly storage fees, which can be up to $1000 a month. And then there is the cost of the eventual IVF treatment. The costs of IVF treatment are typically between $10,000 and $15,000 per cycle at the three public hospitals in Singapore that currently offer IVF treatments.

Your body’s own health is important. “A woman should be as healthy as possible during the egg freezing. It is best not to be smoking, drinking too much alcohol, or taking an exogenous medicine, ” says Dr Kan.  He adds, “Women need to know all the pros and cons of egg freezing, and whether it is right for them. It is not a panacea for all reproductive problems, and in certain cases, we would advise against it.”

Updated by Tara Barker,  April 2022

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