In a progressive move taking women’s rights a step further in Singapore, elective egg freezing has been made available to women since July 2023. Before that, the procedure was only allowed for medical reasons that would compromise the formation of healthy eggs for women who intend to experience pregnancy.
A service like this is extremely valuable to many women who want the option of not being rushed to conceive, leaving them with more time to focus on their own personal evolution, their careers, and perhaps most importantly, the time to find the right committed partner.
Finding the right partner in your 20s can also seem like the most treacherous obstacle course, because in my humble opinion, settling down before you hit 30 makes many people feel like they haven’t really lived life on their own terms.
Unsurprisingly, this tends to contribute to high divorce rates, and if children are already involved, you now have to rearrange your entire life to care for them as you heal and try to move on. Sigh.
But egg freezing being available doesn’t mean that every woman can get access to it. As such a life-changing process, there are many factors to consider before you store a part of you away with the risk of never even using it. Ahead, we share a comprehensive guide to egg freezing in Singapore, from how much it costs to possible side effects.
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The first thing you should know about elective egg freezing is the time frame in which you can get it done. The allowed optimal window to get the procedure done is from 21 to 37 years old.
Doctors generally advise women to get it done as early as possible because fertility rates tend to decline the closer we get to menopause, compromising the quality of the eggs we produce. I guess there is some truth to an “expiry date”.
However, if you’re someone who takes care of their health by minimising smoking and alcohol consumption, and if you exercise regularly, there is a high possibility of you remaining fertile into your 40s. To know if your reproductive parts are working optimally after the age of 35, it’s always best to schedule an annual pap test that also includes blood work for cancer markers.
The only drawback to egg freezing would be the cost as it would be rather difficult for most 20-somethings to fund the procedure themselves unless they have financial support from their families. The estimated cost of one cycle of egg freezing starts at $10,000, and certain clinics may only store them for up to three years although frozen eggs do not have a “shelf life.”
Now, once you’ve decided on freezing your eggs, when the time comes and you’re ready to try conceiving, you’ve also got to make sure your partner has a healthy supply of semen. To ensure you have a higher success rate, it will be best for your partner to have a health check too, in case they have any hereditary conditions that might affect the pregnancy.
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Medically known as oocyte cryopreservation, egg freezing will not compromise the quality of the eggs for however long they are kept in storage. And in cases where women are prone to contracting certain cancers due to family history, doctors will recommend having the ovaries removed to lessen the risk. If the eggs are frozen before the removal of the ovaries, women still have the option of conceiving once all surgeries are completed and the body has recovered.
Egg retrieving is a very similar process to the initial stages of In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). It is a vigorous two-week procedure that can cause some stress and anxiety, so women who decide on doing this need to make sure they have a good support system in place for themselves, especially for their mental health.
After going through a full check up to ascertain if you’re in the right frame of health, you will then be administered a series of hormone injections for two weeks to produce the best quality eggs.
Within this time frame, you will have regular doctors appointments for observations, regular ultrasound scans, and blood tests to see if you’re responding well to the treatment.
Once the eggs have matured, you will receive a final hormone shot before the extraction process. This will be done under sedation or a general anaesthetic. After extraction, the eggs are examined by an embryologist and only the most mature ones are selected for freezing.
With today’s modern technology, most clinics will use a flash-freezing method called vitrification that freezes the eggs at -196 degrees Celcius in under a minute. Vitrification, compared to the older method of egg freezing, has a much higher post-thaw survival rate of over 90% for the eggs. FYI, the older method only had a 60% survival rate.
When the time comes for the eggs to be used however long after, they are then thawed and inseminated with sperm for fertilisation before being transferred to the uterus as an embryo.
This will involve another few weeks of doctors visits and preparation for your body to receive the embryo.
With egg freezing being an invasive procedure, there will naturally be some risks involved even if you’re a super healthy individual. This includes short to long term physical and mental health risks. As women going through our natural cycle, we typically release one egg a month. The egg freezing process requires you to be injected with a cocktail of powerful hormones that hyper-stimulates your ovaries to produce more eggs.
Depending on your age and reproductive health, you could produce only a few eggs or even a couple of dozen. Not to scare anyone, but please be informed that certain conditions can occur during the process that involves ovarian stimulation that could lead to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). Although quite uncommon, severe cases have been known to be life threatening.
Another factor is the toll it can take on your mental health. Getting a bunch of hormones injected into you can be a lot on the mind and body, causing emotional downward spirals, depression, and not to mention the anxiety of “what if it doesn’t work?” Here’s where you need to remember your intention of getting your eggs frozen and to not put any more pressure on yourself.
You will need lots of TLC during this time from the people that care about you, and you will also need to be gentle and patient with yourself most of all. The way I see it, you need to be able to love yourself unconditionally above all else, because that’s the love you are going to be pouring into your little miracle when they do come along eventually.
Also, this is not something you can throw at your child in the future if they ever test your patience because the choice was solely yours. Just saying.
Post egg retrieval, you may go through some discomforts like cramping, bloating, constipation, and general fatigue. Again, be patient with yourself. Do not expect to feel 100% soon after because you may need a couple of weeks to feel “normal” again.
Weight gain can possibly occur, especially after having so many hormones injected into you. But, the last thing you need causing you more stress during your recovery period is internalised fatphobia. As Elsa famously sang, let it go.
You’ll probably want foods that are easy to digest and are non-gassy too, so try to go organic as much as possible, and make sure you have a steady intake of water and fluids to help with constipation. You might want to stock up on medications like Panadol for pain relief or headaches as you heal.
During your recovery period, try not to worry about taking care of anyone else but yourself. That doesn’t mean you hibernate like a lone wolf. You also don’t need to feel isolated in recovery, so make sure to let your friends and family know how you’re feeling in the few weeks post extraction.
Doing your research on the various fertility centres in Singapore on your journey to freezing your eggs will help you determine the kind of treatment that appeals to you. Although the process is pretty straightforward, finding the right team to help you through it is just as important as the treatment itself.
To start, you can check out the services at Centre for Assisted Reproductive Care (CARE) at Singapore General Hospital, Virtus Fertility Centre, OncoFertility Clinic at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, The O&G Specialist Clinic, Raffles Fertility Centre, Sincere Health Group, and RSMC.
In contrast to a year ago when egg freezing was completely illegal in Singapore, it’s good to see how the government has made a step in the right direction. Providing women with the option to preserve their fertility gives us more agency and autonomy over our own bodies whether people agree with it or not. As an elder millennial, I myself have thought about freezing my eggs when I was previously married. Thankfully, the marriage has since been dissolved and I’ve become so comfortable being child free that I no longer feel the need to do it.
But still, I’m sincerely happy for women who now have the choice to decide for themselves, and I hope they receive all the relevant information to help them on their journey.
As long as you have the general consensus on what your journey entails, you’re now ready to make your decisions accordingly. Always remember that you have the power of choice, and you do not ever need to compare yourself to anyone else when making big decisions for yourself.
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