From a Fox News article on this latest study conducted in the nation of Cyprus:
"The researchers assigned 77 infertile women who had volunteered for the study to receive either fresh or frozen eggs from a total of 36 donors. In each case, the researchers injected sperm from the father directly into the eggs. Any resulting embryos were implanted in the mother's uterus.
Overall, the researchers found no differences in the success of the sperm injections, the quality of the embryos, or the number of women who became pregnant with fresh or frozen eggs."
The promise of oocyte cryopreservation, or egg freezing, is in the amount of reproductive control it offers to women. Just as the advent of readily available birth control pills made it so much easier to plan pregnancy, egg freezing allows a woman to retrieve healthy egg cells and freeze them at a time when the cells are believed to more fertile. Then when the time is right for pregnancy and a baby, the cells can be thawed and used to create embryos via IVF.
Egg freezing has so far been mostly acceptable by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine for use by cancer patients prior to chemo or radiation therapy, both of which can render a woman sterile. But the ASRM has pulled up short in regards to egg cryo's use by women in less than dire circumstances. The reason for the professional organization's reticence hasn't been for fear of harm being done by the technique; it's been because research still needs to prove that it works well.
"Even though it's a small study, their results are encouraging," says Dr. Sonja Kristiansen. The Medical Director of Houston Fertility Center says she has patients who will appreciate the day when egg banks are as commonly available as sperm banks are now.
"There are many good reasons for women to have this family-planning option accessible. I think I safely speak for all reproductive specialists by saying that everyone wants to make child-bearing a joyful, planned event. Whether you're using your own egg cells or those of a donor, it's a relief to know that your options for later conception are expanded by the use of frozen cells."
And Dr. Kristiansen adds that as soon as more studies confirm that frozen donor eggs are just as usable as fresh donor eggs, she imagines more agencies will begin "banking" eggs -- and that conceivably will result in less costly treatments, a benefit for third-party reproductive patients who now are required to bear the additional expense of compensating donors for their time and inconvenience during each cycle.
