Ten pathways to elective egg freezing: a binational analysis

Abstract

Partnership problems, not career planning, lead most women on pathways to EEF. These pathways should be studied in a variety of national settings, and fertility clinics should offer patient-centered care for single women pursuing EEF in the couples-oriented world of IVF.

For whom the egg thaws: insights from an analysis of 10 years of frozen egg thaw data from two UK clinics, 2008–2017

“…While the latter show no difference between their relationship status at time of freeze and time of thaw, with the great majority of those in the non-SEF category being in heterosexual relationships, the relationship status of women who froze their eggs for social reasons tells a completely different story. These women, as expected, are almost all single at the time of egg freezing, in line with findings from qualitative studies which report their main reasons for freezing as not being in a relationship, or not being in the right relationship and their motivations as a desire to Bbuy time^and to avoid Bpanic partnering^ [15,[18][19][20][21][22]. These women hope to meet partners before starting their families and are Banticipating coupledom^in the future [17].…”

“…We were also able to identify different categories of egg freezing based on an analysis of 514 freezing cycles, although (due our methodology, which involved analysing clinic records as opposed to speaking with women themselves) we were unable to provide details of women's experiences and motivations as they would have articulated them. Such qualitative and much needed insights into women's own perspectives on and assessments of egg freezing have only recently begun to emerge, thanks to the efforts of medical anthropologists [17][18][19] and sociologists [20][21][22][23]. Currently, however, we remain mostly in the dark regarding how egg freezing impacts women's lives and circumstances and have no long-term follow-ups that explore the reasons why women may never use their eggs, nor indeed the decision-making or circumstances of women who return to use their frozenthawed eggs to attempt conception.…”

“…This refers to women who have chosen to freeze their eggs for so-called Bsocial reasons,^concerned primarily with age-related fertility decline and wishing to increase their chances of motherhood in the future. Although there are valuable debates regarding whether Bsocial^is the best or most appropriate terminology for this type of egg freezing [15,19], in this paper, we have decided to stay with it in order to differentiate between this and other forms of Belective^(i.e. non-medical) egg freezing.…”

Patient-centered elective egg freezing: a binational qualitative study of best practices for women’s quality of care

“…Elective oocyte cryopreservation via vitrification-or Belective egg freezing^(EEF), as women themselves prefer to call it [1,2]-for healthy women who are hoping to preserve their reproductive potential is gaining increasing international acceptance [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Although EEF has been considered a key way for reproductive-age women to defer or delay childbearing while pursuing their educations and careers [10][11][12], the emerging empirical evidence strongly suggests that the primary users of EEF are women reaching the end of their reproductive lifespans (i.e., late 30s to early 40s) who would like to pursue childbearing, but find themselves without a male partner.…”

“…Five major surveys conducted in urban centers around the globe foreground the single status of most EEF patients, who are pursuing EEF at an average age of 36-38 [13][14][15][16][17][18]. Similarly, qualitative interview-based studies of EEF patients carried out in the USA [1,2,19], the UK [20][21][22][23], and Turkey [24,25] also show that most women are pursuing EEF in their late 30s or early 40s, primarily because they lack a male partner.…”