In one of the newest, and still experimental,
fertility treatments available, the Institute for
Reproductive Health has launched a clinical trial to
attempt freezing the eggs for up to 20 women.
The Norwood-based center joins a handful of centers
nationwide that have pumped years of research into a
concept that could transform the fertility industry.
If successful, the concept of egg freezing will throw
new wrinkles into the right-to-life debate and could
have far-reaching influences on how and when people
choose to become parents.
"Egg freezing is huge. It would change almost
everything," says Dr. Sherif Awadalla, the lead partner
in the Institute for Reproductive Health.
Young women who haven't found their ideal husband or
want to spend more time building a career could set
aside eggs and have babies years down the line.
Young women diagnosed with cancer would gain new
options for having children later in life instead of
accepting infertility from radiation and chemotherapy
treatments.
The big challenge facing such ideas: reliability. So
far, success rates have been sketchy at best.
"Egg cryopreservation is definitely here to stay. But
I still don't think there's quite enough clinical
experience yet for women to start stashing away eggs,"
says Dr. Michael Tucker, lab director of the Fertility
Centers of Illinois.
In 1997, Dr. Tucker was involved with the first U.S.
birth from a frozen egg, which occurred in Atlanta.
Scientists have long been able to successfully thaw
frozen sperm and, more recently, have reported success
at thawing frozen human embryos. But success at freezing
a woman's eggs has been rare.
The problem has been that tiny human eggs are still
much larger and contain much more water than sperm cells
or embryonic cells. As a result, there's more risk of
crucial chromosome-laden fibers within the eggs being
destroyed by frozen water crystals.
For years, scientists have hunted for ways around
this problem by adjusting the pace of the freezing
process and by using various chemicals to protect the
egg structures during freezing. Now, some successes are
being reported.
In nearby Indianapolis, Dr. Jeffrey Boldt has
reported delivering eight babies using a new freezing
method. Dr. Awadalla's center will follow the
Indianapolis protocol.
If freezing eggs proves successful, the entire
fertility industry could change in several ways.
• The cottage industry of egg donation - an act of
charity for some friends of infertile couples and a way
of making money for some young women - could evolve into
industrial-scale egg banking.
• Frozen eggs could simplify the issues that swirl
around the fate of unused fertilized embryos and the
decisions to abort some babies in multiple pregnancies.
• Egg freezing would offer new options to young women
diagnosed with cancer.
In theory, even a teenager with leukemia who is
nowhere near ready for parenthood could have some eggs
frozen before starting radiation or chemotherapy
treatments.
Some doctors, however, remain skeptical about the
value of egg freezing for cancer patients. It may prove
quicker and safer to remove and freeze an entire ovary
rather than delay cancer treatments for several weeks
while fertility drugs take effect to generate several
eggs, Tucker said.
Regardless of the potential applications, much more
study is needed before egg freezing becomes routine,
says Dr. Pradeep Warikoo, a fertility expert at the
Bethesda Center for Reproductive Health in Montgomery.
"Right now, the data isn't all that convincing,"
Warikoo says. "Some centers are trying to make a
business out of oocyte banking, but what happens in 10
or 20 years when they try to thaw the eggs and find out
there's a 10 percent survival rate?"
