The procedure has been taken up by women who want to put off having a family, but the ASRM warned that it should not be offered, because medical evidence does not support its success.
Dr Simon Fishel, Managing Director, CARE Fertility Group, said:
“Whilst, with new and improved technology, we at CARE Fertility are now able to offer egg freezing as a potential opportunity to defer reproductive aging, we fully concur with the Practice Guidelines of the ASRM that appropriate counselling is provided by specialists on the experimental nature of banking eggs”. Although significant research has been undertaken, and babies are being born from these new techniques, caution and counselling are imperative at this stage, and for several years to come. For example, should a woman consider using her eggs several years later further consideration must be given to her options at that time, which might include trying with her own (reproductively older) eggs, egg donation from her own pool or another donor, in the context of the state of knowledge and technique used at the time her own eggs were frozen.”