Have you heard about a concept called Fertility Preservation? Do you know that as a man or a woman, you can store your sperm or freeze your eggs for years until you are ready for child bearing? Many people in advanced countries have adopted this means and it’s really working for them as they have been allayed by the fear of becoming infertile as they grow older in life.
Fertility preservation allows people to freeze their eggs and sperm when they are young and use them later when they feel ready to build their families. It can also be an option This is an option for couples who don’t want children right now, or to those who become infertile due to illness or treatment.
Research has shown an increase in the rate at which women and men freeze their eggs and store their sperms respectively. The success stories from those who have done are also encouraging. In fact, more and more medical fertility centres who render these services spring out day by day. They all enjoy patronage from clients always, making them feel less worried about their chosen option.
Egg freezing was developed in the 80s to help women with serious medical conditions requiring treatment that could harm fertility improve their chances of having a baby after treatment. It involves a series of procedures such as collecting a woman’s eggs, freezing them and then thawing them later on for use in fertility treatment. The process of egg collection is a bit more complex than sperm, as it involves a surgery to remove the eggs from the ovaries. Each month, a woman produces a single mature egg. However, for egg freezing, a woman needs to stimulate her ovaries to produce several eggs.
Freezing sperms on the other hand is relatively easy. The process involves masturbation and collecting semen. If there is a condition where masturbation is not possible, sperm can also be collected surgically. Sperm collected is frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored for future use in a process known as cryopreservation.
Today, egg preservation has moved from a process of medical necessity to an elective treatment where women can now choose to freeze their eggs to improve their chances of having children at a later date. Experts say that egg freezing gives women who are currently not in a position to have children a chance at motherhood further down the line, when their natural fertility might be declining.
Few days ago, DR. Abayomi Ajayi, a fertility expert who runs one of the best fertility centres in Nigeria gave an insight on the possibilities of singles and young couples freezing eggs and storing sperm till they are ready to make babies. He however dwelled on other reasons people freeze their eggs and store sperm. Below are excerpts:
“You can store your sperm or eggs forever in a country like Nigeria. There are some countries that have laws governing how long you can store them. For example, in the UK it used to be 10 years but I think they have extended it to 20 or something like that. But in Nigeria, we don’t have any law like that. So, you can store it forever. The people are still agitating for extension. Apart from storing because you don’t have a partner, there are other reasons why people store. Cancer is one of them.
“Cancer is becoming more treatable especially if you detect it on time. There are different kinds of cancer therapy. Before you can take any radiation or chemotherapy, it’s better that you store your eggs. Most of the therapies go for the fast dividing cells and one of the fast dividing cells are the reproductive cells. Most people come out after that to be infertile. So, it’s better that that is stored. But even there are some conditions now that also can risk the fertility of a patient. For example, some people have umbilical fibroids and have been operated on 2 or 3 times. And if you are not careful the ovaries might get affected to the point that it’s not making any blood supply to the ovaries. The same for endometriosis.
“So, if you are going to enter a woman’s tommy 3 times, then you should be thinking of storing her eggs so that the eggs are not compromised. And there are non-cancerous conditions like we mentioned in endometriosis and fibroids.
