Egg Freezing Q&A in Dr Lynn Burmeister’s Own Words
Egg Freezing Q&A
Why are women freezing their eggs?
They’re freezing their eggs because they don’t have a partner and they’re getting older so they are in a bit of a panic. The most common reason is because they are single so it’s a good opportunity for women in their 30s and it’s a good choice when they have no other way to have a family. You can use them when you have met a partner or you can even use them with donor sperm.
Is egg freezing becoming more popular? Is it expensive?
We certainly know by studies it is increasing throughout the world and I think women are just becoming more aware, it just seems to be more out there. The idea of my clinic was to start the clinic, so it was accessible to patients. That’s why I have tried to keep the costs really low so that patients can afford to egg freeze without reducing the quality. We still use high quality treatment, high quality egg freezing equipment at an affordable price for the patients.
When should women start thinking about their fertility?
They should start thinking about their fertility even in their 20s, and perhaps just start with having an egg bank test and if that’s low then going to see a fertility specialist about whether egg freezing is right for them.
But shouldn’t they worry?
They shouldn’t worry, most of the time everyone is fine with their fertility. If their egg bank does come back low, we can always freeze their eggs so there is no cause for alarm.
Where do the eggs go once they have been retrieved?
They’re snap frozen to 196- degrees celsius and they go into tanks that are monitored by alarms so that if anything happens to the eggs the alarm goes off and the scientist will come in immediately to top up the nitrogen tanks and things like that. But that shouldn’t happen because the nitrogen tanks are always kept validated so there is usually no problems with storing the eggs at all.