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Experts: Freezing Eggs Offers Women Hope, But Not Everyone Wins

Considered “experimental” by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine until 2012, egg freezing is now an approved technology — but it is not a fail-safe way to preserve fertility

In the past decade, egg freezing has undergone major technological improvements. But experts are still raising concerns that the technology may not be keeping up with expectations as an ever-increasing number of women in the United States turn to it, NBC News reports

“One of the fantasies is that when a woman is ready to have a child, that science will make it possible for them,” said Tanya Selvaratnam, an activist and author of “The Big Lie: Motherhood, Feminism, and the Reality of the Biological Clock.” “The reality is that it won’t work out for every woman.”

According to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 21 percent of Assisted Reproductive Technology cycles among patients using their own frozen eggs ultimately ended in live births. The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, which uses a slightly different metric than the CDC, showed odds that top out around 11 percent, depending on age.

But for Emily Goulet, an infertility specialist who used her frozen eggs to conceive, her 10-month-old son Charlie was worth the expensive gamble that included multiple rounds of IVF hormone shots and tens of thousands of dollars.

“He is my motivation,” Goulet said. “Even those mornings when I wake up at 5:45 and I want to sleep five more minutes, I say, ‘No, I need to get out there and help other women have a baby like him.’”
Elizabeth Chuck
Elizabeth Chuck is a reporter for NBC News.

“He is my motivation,” Goulet said. “Even those mornings when I wake up at 5:45 and I want to sleep five more minutes, I say, ‘No, I need to get out there and help other women have a baby like him.’”

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