Can single women freeze their eggs and who will protect their fertility?
Recently, a piece of news has aroused much debate among netizens, which suggests that single women should be given the right to implement assisted reproductive technology. 31-year-old Jess wanted to preserve and delay her fertility by freezing her eggs because of her job and age, but she was refused by the hospital because egg freezing is not open to single women in her home country. However, they were refused by the hospital because egg freezing is not open to single women in their home country.
‘Why is it that single men can save their sperm, but single women cannot freeze their eggs?’ Such a sentence resonates with many women, and also expresses the helplessness of many senior single women. So let’s talk about those things about egg freezing!
Guarantee of Female Fertility
The best age for women to have children is between 25-29 years old. After 30 years old, the function of the ovaries starts to decline, and so does the ability to have children naturally. Egg freezing (egg freezing technology), in order to prevent eggs from aging with the human body, removes the eggs when a woman is healthy and freezes them using cryopreservation technology, which not only preserves a woman’s fertility, but also slows down the latest time for a woman to have children. To a large extent, it protects a woman’s right to reproductive freedom and freedom of reproductive methods.
Egg freezing for women abroad has become the norm
Due to the restrictions on egg freezing for single women in their own countries, a large portion of women who have the need for egg freezing have to choose to spend a high amount of money to freeze their eggs abroad, where it has become the norm for single women to preserve their fertility through egg freezing.
The rise of underground illegal egg freezing and surrogacy industry chain
Due to the high cost of egg freezing abroad, some women choose illegal underground surrogacy and egg freezing organisations. These ‘illegal underground industry chains’ are not approved by the relevant departments and the Health Commission, and are not even technically mature, so the harm to women’s health is imaginable.
Egg freezing vs natural fertility
Egg freezing does not necessarily preserve a woman’s fertility. The survival rate of thawed eggs and the pregnancy rate of embryos are not 100%. Therefore, egg freezing is not a substitute for natural fertility, nor can it be relied on too much for the purpose of delaying fertility. Women should try to conceive naturally at the optimal age.
If a woman wants to use assisted reproduction to help her conceive or to preserve her fertility, then assisted reproduction technology is very important, and she must choose a qualified assisted reproduction medical institution that has been certified and approved by the relevant authorities, in order to ensure her own health while solving her fertility troubles.
Domestic vs Foreign Technology
The maturity and success rate of egg freezing in China is comparable to that of egg freezing abroad. With mature egg freezing technology, the frozen eggs can be kept in liquid nitrogen at -196 degree Celsius for many years. No matter how many years it takes, as long as the technology is hardcore, after successful thawing, the frozen eggs can be as active as fresh eggs because all metabolism and molecular movements within the eggs are stopped in the low temperature liquid nitrogen environment. China’s regulations stipulate that egg freezing is only open to married women, especially in the IVF technique, which is very widely used and the success rate is increasing day by day.
Can egg freezing be realised for single women
In this year, in the proposal of ‘guaranteeing women’s equal reproductive rights’, it is suggested that single women be given the right to implement assisted reproductive technology. Obviously, the submission of this proposal has been resonated and supported by many senior single women and even most young women. How the subsequent policy will be adjusted, how the reproductive rights will be controlled, and how the law will be formulated will need to be further researched and discussed.
Caring for Women’s Reproductive Health
Infertility has been on the rise in recent years. Diseases, irreversible decline in ovarian function and other factors are key to women’s reproductive health. Therefore, whether you choose natural conception or other assisted reproductive technologies to help you conceive, we hope that society can pay more attention to women’s fertility issues, give women more care, and give newborns a chance to get to know the world!