Corporate giants like Facebook and Apple sponsoring and encouraging their female employees to freeze their eggs is a welcome change, say IVF experts in Mumbai. While in Mumbai a few corporate companies are already sponsoring infertility treatment for their employees, this move by Facebook and Apple would encourage many companies to follow suit, they added. According to doctors, this would give women further freedom to chose when to become a mother.
Dr Nandita Palshetkar, infertility and IVF specialist at Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital, said: "It's a welcome move. A few years ago, women didn't have the option, though birth control did give them the option to choose when to become a mother. However, freezing eggs and deciding on when to become a mother is a boon for career-oriented women."
Doctors say Oocyte cryopreservation or egg freezing, a technology to help women freeze their healthy eggs, has been in Mumbai for the last few years and many young women, especially those from Bollywood, IT and pharma sector, are already going for it.
"The egg freezing technology is a step towards equalizing gender disparity. For career-oriented women, deciding on motherhood came with a price. Now, by freezing eggs, women will have the time to chose their Mr Right and not rush into marriage," said Dr Aniruddha Malpani, IVF expert, Malpani Infertility Clinic, Mumbai.
While hailing the economic incentives in having babies late, experts also pointed out the positives in having children late, especially when Indian corporate companies are not giving women any additional benefits for freezing their eggs.
"No Indian company is giving money to women for freezing eggs. Freezing eggs and eventually getting pregnant through artificial means spending lakhs of rupees. It's always better that women conceive the natural way when their eggs are fresh. Ovulation-inducing drugs, while harvesting eggs, requires women to be injected with hormonal drugs. And though it's a rare possibility, a woman's uterus may bleed when it's pricked to harvest and store eggs. Further, if a woman wants to conceive at an older age, chances of that happening are less as her uterus becomes weak due to fibroids or cysts and may have difficulty in holding a baby. All these points should be made clear to a woman before she opts to harvest eggs," said Dr Duru Shah, leading South Mumbai gynaecologist.
By 40, the eggs in a woman dry up. With the help of egg banking, women can delay conceiving for non-medical reasons. "Many young women these days are into egg banking. But for this, they have to pay from their pocket. The egg freezing procedure costs around Rs 1-2 lakh, with hormonal injections making up the bulk of the cost," added Dr Malpani.
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