SOCIAL FREEZERS – DO THEY EVER COME BACK

Problem statement:

Oocyte cryopreservation for non-medical purpouses has been widely promped amongst young women who tend to delay their reproduction. As the methodology has secured its safety and efficiency in the assisted reproduction techology (ART) laboratory, the interest in oocyte cryopreservasion has increased highly. But do social freezers ever come back and use these oocytes, or they keep them as a safety boat with no real near-future plans for reproduction?

Methods:

The following study has been performed as a retrospective analysis of 296 women who had oocyte freezing procedure for non medical (social) reasons, medical conditions (oncological treatment) and oocyte donation from January 2013 to June 2023 in ObGyn Hospital “Dr Shterev”, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Results:

Through the observed period 190 women with 221 procedures froze their oocytes for future use, as 9.47% of them had certain medical conditions and 7.36% were hindered to use their reproductive cells at the day of the oocyte retrieval (absence of spermatozoa, sickness).The average age of the women in this group was 35.59±1.50 years and the mean number of cryopreserved oocytes was 5.63±1.37 per women. Compared to social cryopreservers, and bound to the Bulgarian legislation, the 106 women who donated their oocytes were younger (28.86 ±1.53 years (p<0.05)) with 7.34±1.73 (p<0.05) cryopreserved oocytes per donor.

As the clinic has well represented program for oocyte donation 82.07% of the donors were used and resulted in 37 clinical pregnancies with 47 children born. In the same period only 46 (24.21%) women who stored gametes in our cryobank came back and claimed them for ART treatment. As a result 9 clinical pregnancies had been registered and 10 children were born.

An intriguing fact we can point from the medical history of the clear social freezers is the record of previous prosedure(s) for abortion on demand. It was evident for 12.02% of the women in this group.

Conclusion:

According to the results we observe it is evident that patients need more clarity towards oocyte cryopreservation and consequent fertility treatment procedures. More awareness to the most preferable age for cryopreservation and number of oocytes to be stored should be raised.