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Freezing of Eggs Offers Only Option for Childless Couples
DUBAI – Couples seeking fertility treatments in the UAE can opt to freeze eggs instead of embryos for future use, say experts.
Though not as effective or viable, this is the only option that may give childless couples hope after a new federal ruling bans fertility clinics from storing embryos.
“There is no other option,” says Dr Pankaj Shrivastav, Gynaecologist and Fertility expert who runs the Conceive Clinic in Sharjah.
Though pregnancy success rate are higher if frozen embryos are used, frozen eggs, too do the same job, said the doctor, who is among the pioneers of fertility treatment in the UAE.
“Studies suggest that implanting frozen embryos has a success rate of 25-28 per cent while the technique used through frozen eggs has a success rate of only two per cent per egg,” he explained.
“If we remove 10 eggs from a woman, there is a possibility that only 7-8 may fertilise and of these, only 3-5 may be able to give a good quality embryo that can then be planted in the woman,” he added.
It takes up to 48 hours in the laboratory for the eggs to fertilise and take the shape of an embryo. Although sperm and embryos are often frozen and thawed, early ways of freezing eggs have proved far less successful.
Besides, women have a fixed number of eggs to last a lifetime and fertility drops sharply from late 30s onwards.
“We have the option of freezing both eggs and sperms in the country and this works nearly the same,” says Wafa El-Ali, Manager Fakih Fertility Clinic in Dubai.
“However, using frozen embryos is a preferred option,” she added. Couples will also have to pay more if they opt to freeze eggs. “This is a definitely a more expensive choice as the process is cumbersome,” added Dr Shrivastav.
By June, all fertility centres across the countries have to use or dispose of stored embryos as a federal ruling bans the procedure on religious grounds, fearing a mixing in lineage.
However, before the actual process is carried out, couples who have stored embryos at these centres have to give their consent. The Dubai Gynecology and Fertility Centre and the centre in Al Tawam Hospital have the biggest number of frozen embryos with an estimated 5,000 fertilised eggs each.
Though the UAE approved legislation governing fertility centres in 2008, several countries worldwide have it in place for several years and others still do not have it.
According to IVF-Worldwide.com that encourages dialogue on the issue, some aspects of the legislation can be helpful while others can be frustrating. Germany like the UAE does not allow embryo freezing while Australia limits it to three years. Austria and Denmark allow freezing for one year only while Spain and Finland have a 10-year limit.
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