Latest Groundbreaking Study on Egg Freezing Could Change the Future Of Infertility
New research published in the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s journal Fertility and Sterility has shed some inspiring light on egg-freezing success rates. The study, headed p by Kutluk Oktay, M.D., who specializes in preserving the fertility of female cancer patients, conducted a meta-analysis of ooctye cryopreservation cycles with individualized patient data to report the probability of live-birth from IVF cycles.
Most recently, egg freezing has become a common technique that enables women to preserve their fertility for medical or elective reasons. Until now, women who were undergoing oocyte cryopreservation (known as egg freezing ) were not able to predict their chances of a life birth once the eggs were reimplanted.
However, Oktay and his team of researchers collected raw data from 10 previously published studies on egg freezing — which allowed them to acess what could be considered the world’s largest database on pregnancy outcomes after egg freezing — and were able to generate egg freezing success rates from more than 2,265 egg freezing cycles in more than 1,895 women in the United States and in Europe. From the groundbreaking data analysis, researchers were able to develop egg freezing success rates based on a woman’s age, the number of eggs frozen and the method of egg freezing.
Egg freezing is a relatively recent technique which enables women to preserve their fertility for medical or elective reasons. Until now, women who were undergoing oocyte cryopreservation, or egg freezing, were unable to predict their chances of a live birth once the eggs were reimplanted. Oktay and his team collected raw data from 10 previously published studies on egg freezing, allowing them to amass what may be the world’s largest database on pregnancy outcomes after egg freezing. Using this database, which included data from 2,265 egg freezing cycles in 1,805 women in the U.S. and Europe, the researchers generated norms which can be used to determine egg freezing success rates based on a woman’s age, the number of eggs frozen, and the method of egg freezing.
The study also showed researchers that while egg freezing success rates decline with age (as they had suspected), there is a sharper drop after the age of 36. Researchers fond that even though frozen eggs can result in pregnancies as late as 44, the success rates of that happening are less promising after the age of 42.
Still, Oktay and his team of scientists are floored by the overwhelming attention these findings will bring to the world of fertility, pregnancy and not to mention — for couples struggling to conceive. He said, “Because of this breakthrough, women and fertility doctors will now be able to use a live pregnancy rate estimator to calculate their individual chances and to make a well-informed decision about the procedure.”
Did you have success with egg-freezing?
