Having experienced infertility for six years, I often assume people know the difference between eggs and embryos. However, conversations in recent years with couples who have never gone through infertility revealed a tendency to use egg and embryo interchangeably. In simple terms, eggs are what the woman provides to the biological baby-making equation. They have [...]
Ever since I ran across the term vitrification, the scientific word for the hi-tech method used to freeze women’s eggs for a potential future shot at fertilization, I have had a vision of David Letterman dressed in an icicle-covered egg suit with a heavily patterned bright tie, staring googly-eyed at the camera saying, “I’ve been [...]
I remember when going through infertility treatments, we were constantly arguing with people over whether infertility insurance coverage should be provided universally for couples who need medical assistance to have a baby. A relative who happens to work in the medical field said it shouldn’t be covered because it is “optional” to have a child, [...]
When I think of ART and egg freezing, I picture delicately painted Easter eggs; the yolks yanked out magically, squinting to see the details of tiny landscapes or portraits preserved for as long as time and care permit the fragile shell to exist. The amount of effort, time and commitment it must take to make [...]
Electing to freeze your eggs is a big decision with a lot of factors to consider. The first that must be considered is whether or not you are a good candidate, followed closely by physical and financial factors. However, your research of egg freezing should not stop there. The process in which eggs are frozen [...]
The process of egg freezing has advanced immensely in recent years, thanks in large part to vitrification. Vitrification is a process used to rapidly freeze oocytes, or human eggs. The perfection of this process allows women to freeze their unfertilized eggs until they are ready for them to be implanted. The Challenge of Egg Freezing [...]
Currently, there are two different processes that are largely utilized by Reproductive Endocrinologists to freeze oocytes, or unfertilized human eggs. These two processes are vitrification and the conventional, or slow-freeze, method. For over three decades, the slow-freeze method has been utilized to freeze embryos. However, until recently, the slow-freeze method was unreliable and hard to [...]
The world of assisted reproductive technology (ART) has seen rapid growth over the past decade. Perhaps one of the most exciting advances was the advent of egg freezing. There are many pros for women wishing to freeze their eggs, which up until recently, was labeled as experimental. However, in 2012, the American Society of Reproductive [...]
I never pondered the concept of ‘forced parenthood’ until the Sofia Vergara frozen embryo custody battle hit the headlines of all the major media outlets. The Modern Family actress and her ex-fiance, Nick Loeb, were embroiled in a conflict over the wording in a contract they both signed, when they had the embryos created, that [...]
I have struggled with a way to approach this topic that is both sensitive to the women facing cancer every year, while speaking to the hardwired biological desire that women have to bear a child. I had to start by pondering what our journey would have looked like had Lisa received a cancer diagnosis before [...]
