Seattle women now have option to freeze eggs

Women in Seattle now can freeze their eggs to save and fertilize later when they are ready to have a baby.

The option, available at Pacific Northwest Fertility in Seattle, had been limited to cancer patients who would be sterile after chemotherapy and who wanted the option of conceiving.

Northwest Center for Reproductive Services planned to announce Monday that it will offer the option to noncancer patients as well.

The clinic partnered with Extend Fertility, a national company that works with five other fertility clinics around the country to freeze eggs and store them for clients.

Unlike freezing embryos, which has been done successfully for years, freezing human eggs is difficult.

Eggs, the largest cell in the body and filled with water, easily get freezer burn as ice crystals form quickly in them when they are frozen. They are damaged easily during freezing and thawing, increasing the risk of abnormalities.

Christy Jones, chief executive officer and founder of Extend, said the company has licensed a method of slow-freezing/rapid-thawing of eggs, which is supposed to eliminate the ice crystal problem and better preserve the egg.

Jones said the company wanted to have evidence-based success rates of freezing, thawing and conception before offering the service to Seattle clients.

Northwest Center for Reproductive Services enrolled women in a study using frozen donor eggs to test egg survival and fertilization rates. Egg survival is 85 percent and the fertilization rate is 70 percent, said Dr. Gerard Letterie, a reproductive endocrinologist at the clinic. He said consumers should know a clinic's data and successes before making a decision about freezing eggs.

The procedure starts with a series of hormone injections to increase the number of eggs a woman produces. The eggs are removed with a needle, treated with a protectant and sunk into a tank of liquid nitrogen. When a woman is ready, they are thawed, fertilized and implanted into her womb.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine cautions against egg freezing, even for cancer patients, calling it "investigational" and questioning its safety and effectiveness.

But Letterie said new studies and data, including results from the clinic, will expand reproductive options and will make egg donation a simpler, more immediate process similar to a sperm bank. He said the center helped the first woman in the Pacific Northwest to conceive using frozen eggs. The woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, is carrying twins, he said.

"It's the emergence of new technology that will just keep getting better," Letterie said.

Jones pointed to U.S. Census data that show the number of never-married women age 30-34 rose from 6 percent in 1970 to 21 percent in 2000, and about 20 percent of women wait to begin families until after age 35.

"For people without a partner who aren't in a position to have a baby yet, it's a great option," Jones said. She froze her own eggs at age 34.

"We knew the technology was good, but we wanted to see it in practice," she said. "Thankfully, egg freezing is providing an option for women to capture their eggs when they are still at their healthiest and most fertile state."