A Woman Turns to Egg Freezing to Start a Family
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- "Fertility declines over time, not overnight," reproductive endocrinologist Aimee Eyvazzadeh told NOVA. "But sometimes people feel like it's overnight because they're checking their fertility at a time when their fertility has run out."
For Brigitte Adams, starting a family was much different than she had initially planned. "The years just kept marching by," she told NOVA. "I didn't understand that egg health was directly related to chronological age." At 39 years old, she decided to freeze her eggs, becoming an early adopter of egg vitrification, a technology that can dramatically improve the preservation of a woman's eggs and, potentially, her future fertility.
"When I froze my eggs, I thought 11 sounded like this great number," Adams told NOVA. "Of those 11, nine defrosted successfully. From those nine eggs, six fertilized. And at that point, I thought, 'Wow. I went from 11 to six in almost a 24-hour period.' And I started to get very anxious." The next call Adams received was that of those six, only one had made it to day five of development. "And that was crushing," she says.
Learn more about Adams' story, the eventual birth of her daughter, and the unconventional path Adams took to have her.
Stream "Fighting for Fertility" starting on Wednesday, May 12 on NOVA to learn more: to.pbs.org/3eQ...
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Producer/director:
Larkin McPhee
Camera:
Tony Oberstar
Sound:
Zack Allen
Edited by:
Steve Fischer
Ari Daniel
Digital producer:
Ari Daniel
Narration:
Emily Zendt
Archival:
Storyblocks
Shutterstock
Music:
APM
© WGBH Educational Foundation 2021
Adoption is always an option as well. Plenty of kids are waiting for their forever home with a loving family.
Adoption for some people isn't the same as a biological child. I don't think it's wrong for people to desire their own bloodline. What's sad is those people who are blessed to birth their children and then disown them.
Look as he’s grace, she become a Mom in the end 🫶
The comments so far have a few really outdated ideas that you would expect from people 30, 40 years ago. It's really remarkable how people will come to a point, probably in their 30s, where their worldview is set in stone and nothing will budge it no matter how much the world moves on without their input.
The framing of this special doesn't help either. It wrongfully claims this is a "choice," primarily used by "privileged white women" who "wait too long" to settle down and get pregnant during their most fertile yrs. The reality is majority of women who freeze their eggs do so because of Cancer. It's why I had to hustle like hell to get surgical cost cut in half, thanks to the Live Strong Foundation, and the $10,000 of IVF drugs donated by another cancer charity, in time for me to do it before I began Chemo at only 27 yrs old. Still cost me $7,000 & annual storage fees are $400 and I can't afford them since cancer treatment ultimately left me disabled. Should I ever need to use these eggs, it'll cost me $10,000 each time I try to get pregnant, with only a 30% chance of success each time. Out of 18 eggs, only 11 could be frozen, each embryo takes 2 eggs, and each invitro fertilization is only 30% likely to result in pregnancy.
During this process I was alone. The only women alone in a fertility clinic's waiting room, have cancer. Chemo can cause infertility. Until 2014 when I had this done, women in my situation only had the option to freeze embryos - meaning at best you have a partner that wants to make frozen babies with you, otherwise MOST are left with no choice but using a sperm donor... All because they got Cancer!! Even with egg freezing, I was pressured again and again to consider freezing embryos. I was already made to feel like a freak for getting cancer at 27 by DOCTORS (no one else but medical practitioners acted this way), but it was during this process when I was made to feel pathetic for not already having a partner to make embryos with.
Beyond this gross negation that majority of women who freeze their eggs are women with CANCER, and the fact that Fertility Clinics aren't required or even asked to report the rate of egg freezing cases that are correlated with a cancer diagnosis; they frame this story as-if Fertility is a "privilege" rather than a HUMAN RIGHT. It's criminal that insurance companies STILL won't cover Fertility services of ANY kind. I've had to fight insurance in the past just to cover the annual ultrasounds needed for my Endometriosis, which if left untreated, can cause infertility - let alone the horrible quality of life severe pelvic pain & cramps caused me. Insurers tried to call basic ultrasounds "non-medically necessary" & "fertility" services. Before the ACA, not only did insurance companies consider endometriosis, a condition 1 in 4 women have, a "pre-existing condition," but they'd try to stick me with $300 & $500 bills after my annual with my OB simply for follow-up on my Endo care after I had surgery for it years earlier.
Point being: The wrong conversation is being had by this Nova special. It's not about new tech helping "lonely old privileged women," it's about new tech helping women have the same opportunity men have when they get to simply freeze their sperm. Difference is egg freezing is insanely expensive, time consuming, stressful, and extremely painful & yields far less promising results for women literally facing potential infertility because they have cancer. The fact that this non-"elective" procedure isn't at least covered by insurance for young women with CANCER, is straight-up criminal. I'll never be able to afford to use my own eggs as it is. It's the for-profit medical industry and all the right-wing conservatives in government that are saying: People with cancer only have the right to reproduce if they're wealthy.
Fertility care for any condition on Earth, should be covered by insurance!!! It's a human right!
Yet this special chose to show the most ignorant angle, throwing shade at late-30s women who dared to have a career instead of being barefoot and pregnant, who still want a real familiar NOT just random sperm donors. Something men aren't scrutinized nor judged for despite their much higher rates of starting families in their 40s! The unwritten rules of society make even less sense when you factor in that men live on avg 8 yrs LESS than women. So guess we'll just keep on making widows, because men get to do whatever they want, whenever they want, with whomever they want, without judgement, nor consideration of the consequences on society based on common knowledge mortality rates.
Gen X, despite the amazing music they brought us, are primarily Reaganomics conservatives who weren't even touched by the Great Recession - so they're usually the ones making comments sections toxic when it comes to misogyny & so-called "family values" that fight against science, equality, and humanity.
Outdated according to who? Some r0asties who are genetic dead ends? How’s that liberalism and “you can have it all sistah, you go girl” attitude working out for yall?
Nature will not be mocked, and does not go out of style
Everything is so expensive.😭
Maybe the nuclear family should be promoted more so people have more to reflect on in life as value, otherwise we are just narcissistic animals, living in depravity....
The sjw mob might try to cancel you for promoting helthy geneder roles 😅
B-b-but I thought "family" is the one you choose, the friends you make. So, redefining words _isn't_ a good thing? 🤔
Cool story, bro.👍
@@hailmammonmoments7568 In the future I'll be going through my jackets pockets, coming across a face diaper; remember back to that funny year everyone went a little mad about a cold, ...crazy! as I began using it to clean the blood of of my machete; a few people hacked up for their water and food; welcome to Mad Max mofos......
The world is what you make it, if it doesn't work one way, try another.
Maybe.. but nature and biology have certain rules and limitations.. so understand that biological differences between men and women are real.. and understand that women have a limited biological clock and window to reproduce and have children compared to men.. and that if you're a woman and want to get married and have children, you have to be aware of those limitations instead of denying biological reality.
Whether you like it or not, reality doesn't care about feminist ideology. You can either wait until too late like the woman in this video to face reality.. or you can heed wiser cultural voices who tell women about this earlier on.
@@hv3115 Most women who freeze their eggs have Cancer. PBS failed to mention that. Chemo causes infertility, and at only 27 with later-stage aggressive cancer diagnosis, I didn't have a choice. Unless you have a partner, egg freezing is the only way to choose who the father is. Embryo freezing has been around for decades - yet I don't see you upset about that. Guess a fertilized egg is ok to be frozen, but unfertilized is where you draw the line.
And don't even try to Eugenics me for getting Cancer in my 20s. I deserve to still have a family. Cancer destroyed my career too, which I'm sure gives you misogynistic glee. Quit being triggered and denouncing scientific advancement, or you'll be the sick one some day soon, and you'll have absolutely no choice but to succumb to the disease with absolutely no dignity as you lose all control of your motor and bodily functions. You owe scientists a THANKS. End of story.
3:23 - Meanwhile, having six children she couldn't support wasn't good enough for Nadya "Octomom" Suleman, so she had eight of her eggs defrosted to get two more but instead got eight more and ended up with _14_ kids she couldn't support (along with herself and her mother). The opening sequence of _Idiocracy_ is happening in full-effect. 🤦
Funny how that seems to work. Feminism and female emancipation seems to have a dysgenic effect on cultures.. as most of the intelligent and conscientious women end up childless and don't pass on their genes because they wait too long until it's too late or they can't find a man worthy enough and as accomplished and successful as they are to marry and reproduce with. Meanwhile the less intelligent or women without enough self control to use birth control pop out multiple children.
Ok Fundie hypocrite.
And btw, Mr. Logical Fallacy, Octomom not only never freezes her eggs, but the tech didn't even exist when she got pregnant via IVF, which requires EMBRYOS (aka fully fertilized eggs), genius. Whose failing Darwin now?
In case you couldn't understand the video: Egg freezing is NEW, Embryo freezing is NOT. This is about egg freezing - meaning no fertilization. Octomom, an extreme case 2 decades old, that caused doctor to lose medical license, not only NEVER freezed eggs, but never freezed embryos either. She was simply implanted with tons of embryos made via IVF from some S donor she alleges to not know.
We really need white sharia before these catladies make us extinct
Older women shouldn't have kids. It's not fair to the child that will have health issues. It's good that nature stops them from getting pregnant.
Lady. Your eggs are expired. 🤮
How dare you! She's strong and independent and sassy.. women can behave exactly like men and pursue careers and wait until they're in their 40s to get married and have children.. because there is nothing a man in his 40s who wants to have children and have a family finds more appealing, attractive and marriage-worthy than a strong independent woman with a high powered career and expired eggs and a long list of past boyfriends, lovers and relationships.
I want to have kids no matter what genetic risk my kids might have from my attempts to spawn.
NOT!
@@SolaceEasy Maybe you won't, unfortunately, too few people are responsible enough to do the right thing, whether it's accepting that their genes are too bad to have a biological child or that they are not in a position to properly care for and support a child as a _child_ rather than just a temporary amusement. ¬_¬
@@user-vn7ce5ig1z but all my friends have kids and TV and consumerism have taught me that I won't be enough unless I have kids.
Great information in this video, definitely makes me consider as a man what impacts aging might be having on my own fertility. Obviously, there's less of a hard cutoff but if I could preserve my sperm at their healthiest, it might be worth the price if it means the embryo is healthier. Do sperm have any similar cellular mechanisms that need to function like the egg's chromosomal ejection?
Don't fall for feminist propaganda. While aging is universal, male sperm is biologically less complex than a female egg and much cheaper to produce.. and therefore doesnt suffer from the same level of deterioration with age as a woman's eggs.
@@hv3115 Not really sure where feminism enters into it but there's definitely solid evidence that older fathers are more likely to produce children with problems at birth. Stanford has conducted research that indicated men who were 45 or older were 14 percent more likely to have a child born prematurely, and men 50 or older were 28 percent more likely to have a child that required admission to the neonatal intensive care unit. That was only research into outcomes though, not mechanisms. If we can find out what's causing those problems, we can prevent them and have stronger, healthier families as a result.
There’s also evidence that teen ‘fathers’ are likewise less genetically solid.
Human species will fade slowly.
No. It's only the richest, most selfish of us who act like this, and only in the most "developed" countries. Most of the world still sees children as a blessing instead of an inconvenience or something to keep putting off forever.
Only white people are. The rest of the world is still breeding rapidly, and even outbreeding us in our own homelands.
You are being a laboratory human being producing a laboratory human being.