Women Hedge Bets By Banking Their Eggs

At least 138 clinics are freezing and banking eggs -- more than double the number three years ago. But some say more safety research is needed. (Reproductive Medicine Associates Of New York)

Egg-freezing costs $9,000 to $15,000 per attempt, plus $350 to $500 a year to store the eggs. Although some women opt to freeze their eggs to avoid moral dilemmas created by standard infertility treatments that frequently result in leftover embryos, most are choosing it to allow later childbearing.

Karen Soika decided to freeze her eggs at 38 after a relationship ended, she decided to go to medical school and she realized that having children anytime soon was unlikely.

"I know I want to be a mom and have a family at some point," said Soika, who lives in New York. "But I can't pursue that at this point. This is kind of like my insurance policy. It gives me the alternative of still having my own child with my own gene pool."

Although agreeing that egg-freezing holds promise, many experts say too few studies have been published to substantiate the success rates that some clinics claim.

"Currently available evidence does not validate the assumption that if you freeze your eggs now, your chances of a successful pregnancy will be better than your chances using your own fresh eggs at that point," said Marc A. Fritz, a University of North Carolina reproductive endocrinologist. He spoke on behalf of ASRM, which recommends limiting egg-freezing to cancer patients and research studies.

Fritz and others experts worry that egg-freezing might lull women into assuming it will make it easy to have children in their 40s. A woman's chances of conceiving are still much better in her 20s and 30s.

"Our concern is women may be making life decisions viewing this as effectively having purchased an insurance policy. The success rates don't remotely support that," Fritz said.

But other experts say confidence in egg-freezing is rising rapidly, especially for women who freeze their eggs in their early to mid-30s at experienced clinics. For example, a woman who freezes her eggs when she is 32 might have close to a 40 percent chance of having a baby with those eggs later, according to a recent analysis of published data by fertility specialist Kutluk Oktay of Cornell University. Some are reporting even better success rates in yet-unpublished studies.

"Every month we are getting the news of new pregnancies and further success," said Oktay, who figures egg-freezing makes sense for women in their 30s who think they are at least three to eight years from trying to have children. Oktay, who heads an ASRM committee reviewing the specialist group's policy, expects the organization will relax its objections.

But even if the process turns out to be safe and reliable, some say society should instead make it more practical for women to have babies when it is easier and safer, when they have more energy and are more likely to live long enough to play with their grandchildren.

"It seems like we're finding a solution in high tech that asks women to bear the cost of a socially created problem -- a problem we could correct if we had a family-friendly work environment," said Mary L. Shanley, a Vassar College political science professor. "I'd like to see us focusing on solving that rather than talking women into a risky medical procedure."

Others wonder whether the technology will fuel fundamental demographic shifts in childbearing, with more affluent women tending to have children when they are older -- and often at the peak of busy careers.