In the past five or six years, technology has caught up with women who want to hold off on motherhood to travel and pursue careers, said Dr. Kaylen Silverberg of Texas Fertility Center.
Silverberg is a reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist. He said men have been able to preserve, or freeze, sperm for decades because there are up to 100,000 sperm per ejaculation. Even if 40 percent die during the preservation process, there are still plenty to work with, Silverberg said.
“But with an egg, it’s only one cell,” he said. “It either survives, or it doesn’t.”
Several years ago, vitrification—which freezes a cell so fast it transforms it into a glass-like state—became the best practice for freezing eggs, and survival rates for the eggs soared, Silverberg said.
“It’s changed everything for women who want to freeze eggs and preserve their fertility,” he said.
About a year ago, Silverberg said Texas Fertility Center began hosting free egg-freezing seminars to initiate and grow the conversation of female infertility.
“We want to take it out of the shadows and bring it into the mainstream,” he said.
At first, only one or two women attended the seminars; now, 15-20 women attend each month, from women in their late 20s to women in their early 40s, he said.
“The demand has really evolved,” he said.
The next seminar will be held July 9. Registration is available at www.txfertility.com/egg-freezing-seminar-registration.
