'freeze Careers, Not Eggs' Warning

Sun Herald

Sunday January 22, 2006

By AMY LAWSON HEALTH REPORTER

WOMEN are being cautioned against freezing their eggs in an attempt to delay childbirth, with experts warning the success rate is very low.

IVF Directors Group chairman Michael Chapman said only about one in 20 women who froze their eggs ended up with a baby.

"On the current success rate reported around the world, to pin one's hopes on maintaining fertility through egg freezing is still a long shot," he said.

He said egg freezing was used primarily by women cancer patients likely to be rendered infertile by chemotherapy treatment.

But he said there was likely to be a growing demand from women who wanted to freeze their eggs for social reasons, such as pursuing their career, and delay having children until later in life.

"You can't pin your hopes on IVF," Professor Chapman said. "The success rate in older women is not good. The message should be, get on and have children young then build your career afterwards."

Professor Chapman said as technology improved, more women were likely to view egg freezing as an option.

"In five years, there'll probably be a totally different picture," he said. "There's a lot of work going on in this area and [some doctors] are getting a 10 to 20 per cent success rate, which is still only about half that of the normal IVF rate."

IVF Australia director Ric Porter said that while research on egg freezing looked promising, success rates were low.

"We try to encourage women to have babies now because the success rates just aren't high enough," he said.

"We don't promote or advertise it, so the demand for it is very low."

But he said technology could soon be advanced enough to give women a reasonable chance of success, which could increase demand.

Theoretically, a 60- year-old could then use a 35-year-old egg and expect the same pregnancy outcomes as a 25-year-old. "There's still obstetric risks associated with a mum's age but the risks of miscarriage and foetal abnormalities would be the same as a 25-year-old," he said.