Eggs, Frozen Easy
Canadian press is reporting that the McGill Reproductive Center, having just overseen Canada's first birth of a prenancy resulting from the use of a frozen egg, has now advanced the process for freezing eggs considerably. To back up a bit, it has been terribly difficult to freeze an egg, as opposed to sperm. The consequences have been significant, and not only for women with ovarian cancer or other diseases that are treated by radical hysterectomy, but also for women who have wanted to delay procreation past the age when it would be considered safe to use one's own eggs to procreate.The team at Montreal's McGill University is flash freezing eggs, which works. 95% of the eggs frozen in their procedure are still viable when thawed. If that works out in continuing research that the procedure is safe - and boy is that a big 'if', particularly given how little clinical research on the health of offspring is actually performed in the area of IVF - this will revolutionize reproduction for women. Women who can delay pregnancy past menopause will be able to have an entirely different experience in terms of the way in which they can structure family and career - and advantage men have had, well, forever.
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