In This IssueEventsWed., Dec. 16, 2009 Thurs., Jan. 28, 2010 About Us
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Working Women and Delayed Child Bearing: Technological Advances Now Offer Women More OptionsBy Mindy Berkson, Founder, Lotus Blossom Consulting, LLC No doubt, infertility is on the rise. One in five couples today will struggle with infertility—the biological inability to conceive or carry a pregnancy to full term. Many factors can contribute to this staggering and continually growing statistic. Most common are delayed child bearing, advanced maternal age, medical conditions, sexually transmitted diseases, obesity, and environmental factors. As women continue to work and delay having children, their needs with regard to infertility treatment have also continued to grow. The infertility diagnosis can be devastating and demoralizing. Unable to become pregnant or carry a pregnancy to term, women often feel inadequate, alone and depressed. Infertility treatment is costly and invasive. Success rates are not guaranteed and insurance benefits are often limited. The emotional, physical, and financial stressors associated with the infertility process are often challenging and overwhelming. While infertility affects the male and female populations at almost identical percentages, it is typically the woman who undergoes the vast majority of invasive and costly medical procedures. These procedures require intense daily monitoring over the course of several weeks, and sometimes months, thus making it necessary to miss work for such treatments as pre-scheduled ultrasound and blood draws, followed by daily injections of hormones. Adding insult to injury, these treatments then cause increasing mood swings, physical bloating and discomfort. It is no wonder that undergoing infertility treatment has been labeled a full-time job. Age matters in many aspects of life and definitely in the creation of life. Women are most fertile between the ages of 20 to 28 with their fertility decreasing in half by the time they reach 35 years of age. By age 45, only a 1% chance remains each month of conceiving naturally. This is a startling fact considering the average age a woman has her first child has risen to a record high of 25.1 years with 20% of women waiting until they are 35 years old to begin their family. An increasing number of women choose to delay childbearing due to further schooling, career choice, or waiting to find their perfect partner. Many individuals are choosing to be single parents. While those choices are understandable and personal, as women naturally age so do their ovaries, affecting their fertility. Oocyte cryopreservation, commonly known as egg banking, generally provides women up to the age of 38 a chance to stop their biological clock and effectively plan and preserve their fertility for the future. This fertility preservation is advantageous because as women mature the quality and quantity of their given lifetime supply of eggs decreases, resulting in eggs that are more prone to genetic abnormalities. Chromosomal abnormalities can lead to increased incidences of infertility, miscarriage and birth defects. Since pregnancy is possible at later ages, egg freezing increases opportunities for biological offspring and pregnancy in women beyond 35 years of age. Egg banking is also an option that is highly recommended for women diagnosed with cancer prior to starting medical treatments that may negatively impact their fertility. While treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy are lifesaving, they can potentially leave women infertile. The ability to freeze viable eggs before undergoing cancer treatments instills hope for a family in the future. Egg banking, the newest technology available in the fertility arena increases options and opportunities for women who plan to delay child bearing for personal reasons or for medically induced situations. Because women do not continually reproduce more eggs over a lifetime, the availability and advancement of egg banking technology allows women to protect a precious limited resource and helps to ensure their fertility until such time that they are ready to begin a family. About Mindy Berkson and Lotus Blossom Consulting
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