Abstract
Oocyte freezing for ‘social reasons’ refers to women of reproductive age who are aiming to prolong, protect and secure their fertility. The term emerged to describe application of the highly promising technique, namely vitrification on oocytes retrieved through controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) from women intending to preserve their fertility for social reasons. These women opt to cryopreserve their oocytes at a point in their life when they need to postpone childbearing on the grounds of so called ‘social’ reasons. These reasons may include a highly driven career, absence of an adequate partner, financial instability, or personal reasons that make them feel unprepared for motherhood. This is a sensitive and multifaceted issue that entails medical, bioethical and socio-psychological components. The latest trend and the apparent increase noted on oocyte freezing for ‘social reasons’ has prompted our team of fertility specialists, embryologists, obstetricians, gynecologists and psychologists to proceed with a thorough, critical and all-inclusive comprehensive analysis. The wide range of findings of this analysis involve concerns of embryology and epigenetics that shape decisions made in the IVF laboratory, issues regarding obstetric and perinatal concerns on the pregnancy concluding from these oocytes and the respective delivery management and neonatal data, to the social and bioethical impact of this trend’s application. This literature review refers to matters rising from the moment the ‘idea’ of this option is ‘birthed’ in a woman’s thoughts, to proceeding and executing it clinically, up until the point of the pediatric follow up of the children born. We aim to shed light to the controversial issue of oocyte freezing, while objectively exhibit all aspects regarding this complex matter, as well as to respectfully approach how could the prospect of our future expectations be shaped from the impact of its application.
Highlights
A computerized search was performed employing PubMed regarding the current status of oocyte cryopreservation considering its history, clinical indications and the efficacy of this technique that entails medical, scientific, bioethical and psychosocial issues
The exact basic keywords and combinations employed for this search are listed “oocyte freezing”, “social freezing”, “oocyte freezing for social reasons”, “oocyte cryopreservation”, “oocyte vitrification”, as well as combinations including the aspects examined with respect to social freezing such as “bioethics and oocyte freezing”
Societal changes and medical developments in recent years have given rise to the augmenting design of services addressed to women opting for ‘social egg freezing’
Summary
Cryobiology enables the preservation of tissues and other biological material through a procedure of freezing and thawing, whilst maintaining their vitality [1]. This article is focused on oocyte cryopreservation. The first live birth from cryopreserved oocytes was recorded in 1986, employing slow freezing [2]. A new cryopreservation method called ‘vitrification’ followed, leading to the first live birth from frozen oocytes in 1999 [3]. Vitrification is described as a technique that enables cells to be cooled at −196 ◦ C avoiding the risk of crystallization by implementation of cryoprotectant solutions [4]
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