Every Year, Tens of Thousands of Young Women Opt to Freeze Their Eggs, An Expensive and Sometimes Painful Procedure. As More Americans Postpone Childbearing, The Numbers Are Growing.
But there are many unknowns: What is the optimal donor age for freezing? What are the Success Rates? And Critically: How Long Do Frozen Eggs Last?
The Answers to Those Questions May Be Harde to Find. In its Dratic Downsizing of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Trump Administration Abolished A Federal Research Team That Gathered and Analyzed Data from Fertility Clinics with the purposes of improving outcomes.
The Dismissal of the Six-Person Operation “is a real Critical Loss,” Said Aaron Levine, a Professor at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, who has collaborated with the CDC Team on Research Projects.
“They had the most understanding data on fertility clinics, and their core value was truthing for patients.”
Barbara Collura, Chief Executive of Resolve: The National Incrtility Association, Said the Loss of the CDC Team Would Be A Setback to Both Infertile Couples and Women Contemplating the Freezing and Banking of Eggs.
The Termination Arrives as Politicians have Become Increasingly concerned with Falling Fertility Rates in the United States. President Trump has declared himself the “fertility president” and Issued an executive order expanding access to vitro fertilization.
“It doesn’t square with the white house leaning all in on IVF,” Ms. Collura Said.
One in Seven Women, Married or Unmarried, Infrtility Experiences, She Said: “So I Just Look at Those Statistics and It’s disappointing, If Not Mind-Blowing, That Our Nation’s Public Health Agency Has Decided We’re Not Going To Talk About It Or Do Work On It.”
Asked Why The Team Had Been Eliminated, A Health and Human Services Spokeswoman Said the Administration is “In the Planning Stages” of Moving Materal Health Programs to the New Administration for A Healthy America. She Did not provide other details.
The scientists on the team, the national assisted reproductive technology surveillance system, were trying to solve a number of riddles surrounding IVF planned research included a study look at the birthrates involving eggs and embryos that had been frozen and banked for several years.
“We do not have great data on the success rates of egg freezing when wemen do it for their own personal use, just because it’s relatively new and difficult to track,” Said Dr. Levine.
The Unknowns Weight on Women who Want to have Children. Simeonne Bookal, Who Works With Ms. Collura at Resolve, Froze Her Eggs in 2018. She knew She Wanted to have children, but was waing to find the right partner.
Earlier This Year, Ms. Bookal Became engaged; The wedding will be held next spring. She is now 38, and Said the Banked Eggs Had Provided Her with a “Security Blanket.”
Though She Still Can’t be Complely Confident She will be able to get pregnant and have children, “I want be Way more stressed if i hadn’t Frozen my eggs.”
Precise Success Rates for the procedure are Elusive, Becuse Many of the Studies Published so far are based on theoretical Models that rely on data from patients with infertility, or woman who are donating their eggs. They are different in mary Ways from Women who are pre -service their Own Eggs for Future Use.
Other studies are small, reporting on outcomes Involving Fewer Than 1,000 Women Who Have Returned to Thaw Their Eggs and Undergo IVF, Said Dr. Sarah Druckenmiller Cascante,, Clinical Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Nyu Langone and the Author of A Recent Review Paper on the Subject.
“The data is limited, and it’s important to be honest with patients about that,” she said.
“I Don’t like to think of it as an Insurance Policy that is guaranto to pay, Resulting in a baby, but rather as increasing your odds of having a biological child later in life, especially if you do it when young and get a good number of eggs.”
The CDC Team Santéed A Database, The National Art Surveillance System, Which was created by Congress in 1992 and calculated success for each reporting fertility clinic. It needs constant updating, and its future is now in doubt.
The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology has a similar database available to researchers. But it is slightly less understanding Than the cdc’s, as it only include information from its member clinics, about 85 pierent of the nation’s fertility clinical.
That database is not awaited by a dedicated research team, Said Sean Tipton, Chief Advocacy and Policy Officer at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
Questions about the Risks and Benefits of Egg Freezing Haven On An Added Urgency As the Number of Women Banking Their Eggs For Future Use Has Grown Dramatically.
The procedure was no long deemed experience as of 2012. In 2014, only 6.090 Banked Their Eggs for Fertility Preservation; by 2022, The Number Had Climbed to 28,207. The Figure was 39,269 in 2023, The Last Year for Which Data is available.
