In a recent trend, women take time to plan their families. However, the ticking of the biological clock always a fear factor for delay their family planning program. It is clinically well-established that after mid-thirty, the female fertility starts declining. But egg freezing allows preserving women’s fertility. Women who have taken this medical facility can use their frozen egg for future pregnancy and increase the chances to get the biological mother to their child. Doctors may suggest the egg freezing technique for women who will undergo chemotherapy or other medical procedure that increases the risk of diminishing fertility before completing their family. However, in the current trend, women freeze their eggs to enjoy the delaying motherhood for a variety of personal reasons apart from any underlying medical cause.
But egg freezing is still an expensive medical procedure. Therefore it is not affordable for the general population. A medical expert from California recently mentioned that the average cost of a single egg-freezing cycle is $6,000 to $10,000. The duration of the procedure varies from four to six weeks. The mentioned amount is estimated for initial tests, egg retrieval procedures, and medication require to conduct the egg freezing technique. But the amount is not included the annual storage charge. A report stated that in a Californian clinic, women have retrieved their eggs, need to pay an additional $600 annual charge for storing the frozen eggs. Approximately $5000 additional costs require during IVF treatment. However, this charge is not fixed for every clinic. The charges vary from country to country and clinic to clinic. For example, a search result reported that in INR the average cost of egg freezing is quite equivalent to IVF procedure, which may vary from Rs.50,000 to Rs.1 lakh. Once the eggs are frozen, Rs.15,000 to Rs.30,000 annual payment requires for storing purposes.
Here it is necessary to mention that the insurance coverage for egg freezing is variable. In many countries, egg freezing is not under insurance coverage. But if egg freezing is recommended due to some medical background, then many countries provide insurance coverage.
There is no fixed success rate of egg freezing in terms of chances of having a baby in the future also variable. Different study results reported that a frozen egg can give only a 3% to 9% chance to have a baby in future use, whereas, some clinics reported that frozen eggs have a 25% to 50% chance of having a baby, depending upon the woman’s age. Therefore, before starting the egg freezing procedure, one should do all the research to know better the scope of having a baby by using frozen egg as well as country specific regulation related to insurance coverage before investing money for egg freezing.
References:
- https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/more-women-are-freezing-their-eggs-to-delay-having-kids-but-the-process-costs-thousands-of-dollars-and-still-might-not-work-heres-what-you-should-know-/articleshow/73276886.cms
- https://parenting.firstcry.com/articles/egg-freezing-what-to-expect/
- https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/10/16/356727823/freezing-a-womans-eggs-can-be-emotionally-and-financially-costly#:~:text=It%20cost%20about%20%2410%2C000%20to,IVF%20it%20costs%20about%20%245%2C000.