with a diminished reserve of healthy eggs, which isn’t
the best-case scenario.
While many women look upon egg freezing as
an infertility treatment, it’s actually meant to be a
preventative treatment. The longer you delay your egg
freezing, the less effective the procedure gets. Ladies
who undergo the procedure at an advanced age are
also likely to spend more on the process; they’ll have to
do more cycles, and take more medication during each
cycle.
Last but not least, do note that plenty of women
have expressed regret after freezing their eggs. In
a study published by the University of California,
San Francisco, it came to light that 49% of women
surveyed regret their decision to undergo their egg
freezing procedure (Greenwood, Pasch, Hastie, Cedars
& Huddleston, 2018). According to senior author Dr.
Heather Huddleston, these participants had “unrealistic
expectations” of being able to conceive using their
frozen eggs, with some of the women estimating that
their likelihood of having a baby with their frozen eggs
was 100%.
#3: Lubricant is good for fertility
Think lubricant is good for fertility? Think again.
According to a study by the State University of New
York’s Upstate Medical Center, plenty of widely-
available lubricants can harm sperm, and reduce your
chances of getting pregnant (Sandhu, Wong, Kling, &
Chohan, 2014).
In this study, which was published in the Fertility and
Sterility journal, the co-authors state that “commercial
coital lubricants have been wrongly perceived to
maintain fertility.” The co-authors tested five different
commonly available types of lubricants, and four out of
the five lubricants impaired sperm’s overall movement,
as well as their ability to move forward.
The only exception to the rule occurs when you’re
using a lubricant that’s specially formulated for
couples trying to conceive. Your options include Pre-
Seed, Conceive Plus, Yes Baby, Sliquid Oceanics,
and Astroglide.
GlobalHealthAndTravel.com
#4:You are only infertile when you reach
menopause
Humanity is an unique species in how our fertility
and reproductive life is effectively terminated at mid-
life. However, many mistakenly associate the lost of
fertility with menopause, that the cessation of fertility
only happens when a woman encounters menopause.
However, this is not the case for most people: there is
often a decade or more between the loss of fertility in
eggs and the end of menstrual activity.
#5:The exception is not the rule!
There was a popular article written around 20 years
ago by a journalist which sought to debunk the
reproductive medicine industry: this journalist had 3
children after the age of 35, and made the claim that
not only does fertility not decline with age, but that any
claims regarding the declining fertility in women was a
huge con-job created by the IVF industry.
This reminds me of an argument back when the Royal
College of Surgeons released its 1962 report on the
connection between smoking and cancer. At the time,
there were people who insisted that this link could not
exist, as people had that one relative or acquaintance
who smoked 60 cigarettes a day and lived to 85!
The fact is that in science, exceptions and outliers
will always exist. In addition, scientific statistics are
shaped around the average population: no one is
suggesting that the human race is programmed to
experience reproductive obsolescence on everyone’s
40th birthday. For every woman who gets pregnant
at the age of 41, there is also someone who is infertile
before their 30th birthday. Expecting one to be an
outlier, in a good way, is a dangerous way to wager
one’s dreams of starting a family.
While many
women look
upon egg
freezing as
an infertility
treatment,
it’s actually
meant to be a
preventative
treatment
Professor Christopher Chen is a fertility medicine
pioneer and the founder of the Advanced Centre for
Reproductive Medicine in Singapore.
Professor Christopher Chen Chair for Reproductive
Medicine, University of Queensland, Australia.
Professor, University of Newcastle, Australia.
MARCH 2020
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