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A recent study revealed that fresh eggs have higher birth rate than frozen eggs in vitro fertilization. The study showed that even though there is a small difference, frozen eggs do tend to lead to fewer pregnancies than fresh eggs when used in vitro fertilization. Even though frozen eggs are quite effective in the process of fertilization, they have a lower birth rate probability than fresh eggs.
Scientists from the Center for Human Reproduction in New York gathered data from 380 fertility clinics inside the United States, where about 92 percent of all in vitro fertilization births occur. The research goes back to 2013, at the time the American Society for Reproduction Medicine announced that frozen donated eggs (oocyte cryopreservation) were no longer limited to experimental processes only.
Women who used fresh eggs in order to implant their embryos gave live births 47 percent of the times, while the women who implanted their embryos with frozen eggs gave births 43 percent of the time. Nevertheless, when the study took into account the number of embryos, the live birth rate was 56 percent for women who used fresh eggs and 47 percent for women that used frozen eggs.
There was also a tiny margin in the number of embryos that were transferred. Women who were using frozen eggs in the process of in vitro fertilization transferred around 1.6 embryos per cycle, when compared to 1.7 embryos for women who used fresh eggs in their fertilization.
The research data analyzed only the donor eggs, not women who chose to freeze their own eggs for future in vitro fertilization. The donors are screened in order to meet certain health qualifications, so the pregnancies differ for older women.
The researchers said that the reasons why there are lower live birth rates for women who use frozen eggs are still uncertain at the time. A possible explanation as to why this is might be the fact that there is a fewer opportunity for embryo selection because there are less oocytes, which may lead to less embryos available to be transferred. This could also be because the quality of oocytes might be affected by thawing and cryopreservation.
The recent study also wants to look into the fertility options for women who are older and how this could benefit in treating diseases at an older age.
Facebook and Apple have given their female workers the option to freeze their eggs in order to move forward in their careers. The cost of this procedure ranges from around $5,000 to about $8,000.
Image Source: bebelu.ro
