THE GIFT OF TIME'
Many thought lockdowns would mean a baby boom, but the result was an egg-freezing boom, instead
When it became clear that initial stay-at-home orders would last awhile, speculation began about a looming COVID-19 baby boom. It certainly made sense at the time: a bunch of couples stuck at home, little to do.
Instead, procreation plans were put on ice — literally.
Even as New York City's businesses — restaurants, bars, gyms, retail — have been slammed by the pandemic, New York University's Langone Fertility Center has seen a 41-per-cent increase in women freezing their eggs compared with the same time period in 2019. And that number might have been even higher if not for the centre's three-month pandemic-induced closure.
James A. Grifo, the centre's director, has an explanation for the surge: In a time when people feel so helpless, he says, freezing eggs is one way to restore a sense of control.
“COVID has really pushed the needle in terms of people freezing their eggs,” Grifo said. “A lot of women are afraid to try and get pregnant. Because of this delay, they wanted to do something to protect their fertility, so they froze eggs as a way to say, `OK, I can't get pregnant now. I'm afraid of this virus, but I'll do something.'”
Egg-freezing (or, to be technical, oocyte cryopreservation) was developed in the 1980s to allow cancer patients to preserve their eggs before undergoing chemotherapy. When the American Society for Reproductive Medicine declared the procedure no longer “experimental” in 2012, it gave women a new opportunity to take charge of their reproductive lives, especially as the average age a woman gives birth to her first child steadily increases.
Becca Kufrin, 30, the lead on the 2018 season of The Bachelorette, called it quits with fiancé Garrett Yrigoyen during stay-at-home orders. She decided to put her eggs on ice as an investment in her future self. She wasn't worried about genetics but figured, “I'm not getting any younger.”
The demanding egg-freezing process — which involves a cocktail of hormones to inject and ingest over a few weeks to stimulate the ovaries to grow as many eggs as possible — requires downtime,
though, and in February Kufrin was in a new city every night for a Bachelor Live tour. The pandemic, as it turned out, gave her an opening to start.
“I think the thing that really pushed me over the edge to move forward with it is the fact that I just got out of a two-year engagement,” Kufrin said.
“We were living together and checking all the right boxes. But now that I'm out of that relationship and I don't know when I'll be in a good, committed relationship to start a family one day, why not take this step? I'm an independent woman. I have the means to do this
right now at this time for myself.”
And the early returns have been a success. Of the 24 eggs her doctor retrieved from her, Kufrin says, 19 were mature enough for fertiliza
tion and ready for the freezing process. Her doctor says that puts her at a 90-per-cent take-home baby rate and a 70-per-cent chance of two babies at the time of her choosing.
“In the perfect world, one day I would find the right partner for me to be able to get pregnant‚“Kufrin said. “But if that doesn't happen, if I don't find a partner or if I can't get pregnant on my own, it feels good knowing that I have a few eggs on reserve.”
When it comes to freezing eggs, the younger a woman is, generally speaking, the more eggs she tends to have. And the greater the number of eggs, the greater the odds of a baby.
The outcome of egg-freezing is no sure thing, though, even if it is often marketed as such. That means many will shell out thousands of dollars or more for a procedure based on unrealistic expectations, regardless of their fertility composition and timeline.
Grifo said there is no measurable impact on the health of babies born from frozen eggs. In fact, the rate of miscarriages for egg-freezing is lower than that for regular pregnancies, because many of the embryos that would result from a miscarriage do not survive the freezing to begin with. And while 34 per cent may sound low, Grifo and his team say otherwise.
“This percentage shows that the technology is viable, even with women freezing their eggs at an age much older than is ideal,” Grifo said.
Sometimes even those right at the “ideal” age can benefit.
In February of this year, Caroline Lunny decided to check her egg count, even though she was not yet ready for a baby as a single 29-year-old. Lunny had no known medical issues besides asthma, but her count came back stunningly resembling that of someone 15 years older.
“My whole world stopped. I can't tell you how many doctors said there's no hope for me,” Lunny said.
Then, days after receiving the news, she starting showing symptoms of COVID-19.
Lunny self-isolated for weeks, wrestling with not only a mysterious disease, but a reproductive prognosis that she described as a betrayal by her body.
“I was never as scared of coronavirus as I was afraid of not having kids,” she said. “It was excruciating to be sitting there alone and waiting, when I already felt like I didn't have a second to waste in pursuing fertility treatment.”
It took about a month, but she recovered and all but sprinted to her fertility clinic. During two sessions, her doctor retrieved four eggs, a “miracle” given her condition.
“You know, as women, our bodies don't wait for us,” Lunny said. “Freezing my eggs has given me the gift of time.”