| NO CHOICE IN SA WHEN
IT COMES TO EGG FREEZING - Clinics
will do procedure for medical reasons, not 'social' ones SOUTH African women wanting to emulate their Western sisters in having eggs frozen to pause their biological clocks cannot do so in their own country – although it is perfectly legal. A groundbreaking egg-freezing procedure enables women in their countries to postpone pregnancy to later in life while they get on with their careers. But the only two clinics practicing the pioneering procedure in South Africa refuse to offer the service for any but medical reasons – for example, when cancer treatment threatens to harm the patient’s ovaries. An international study by a team of US researchers, who presented their findings to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, found that career women who wanted a family were freezing their eggs for later use. The procedure, which involves extracting eggs from the ovaries and freezing them before fertilization, sparked controversy recently when a Canadian mother froze her eggs for her seven-year-old daughter, whose genetic disorder will render her infertile. South African medical legal experts said the procedure was “perfectly legal” and hardly controversial – though there were some ethical implications. Professor Ames Dhai, had of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics at Wits University, said: “There is no song and dance about sperm freezing, so in the same vein there should be no controversy about women freezing their eggs.” But she said, “I don’t think its going to open doors for every women to go and get her eggs frozen – mainly because it is an uncomfortable procedure with side effects and also because it is costly”. Michelle Odayan, executive director of Agenda Feminist Media, said she supported medical advances that contributed to the advancement of women: “This presents an important option that would allow women to have greater control over their bodies and their reproductive rights in the future.” Durban lawyer Thuli Mhlungu said she would have grabbed the opportunity to freeze her eggs in the prime of her law career a few years ago, had the procedure been available to her. Career-driven Mhlungu, 35, shelved her thriving career for motherhood. “If this procedure had been available
when I had my kids, I would have definitely been a candidate.
Don’t get me wrong, I love being a mother, but I had
to put my career on hold when I fell pregnant. Egg freezing
can give career women a chance to plan their lives.”
She said. The Sunday Times has established that the two South African clinics – the Centre for Assisted Reproduction and Endocrinology (Care) in Durban and the Cape Fertility Clinic in Cape Town – are freezing eggs mainly for cancer patients. Dr Anil Ramdeo, founder of the Care clinic, said the technology was in the development stage, and cost between R15 000 and R26 000. He said the practice of egg freezing was increasing although “it is generally less successful” than embryo freezing. Dr Klaus Wiswedel, director of the Cape Fertility Clinic, said the clinic performed the procedure “only on very specific indications, like for patients undergoing chemotherapy”. “The reason is that recovery of eggs after freezing is notoriously bad and cannot be offered as yet as a routine procedure. Embryo freezing is a far better alternative,” Wiswedel said. University of Kwazulu-Natal medical legal expert Dr Jerome Singh said the egg-freezing procedure opened up a potential ethical minefield. “For instance, if a woman is in a coma and her husband wants her eggs to be frozen, who will have rights over her eggs? Freezing eggs for one’s own use poses no problems. But what happens [if] a woman who has frozen her eggs dies? Who has ownership of her eggs?” Dr Paul Dalmeyer, co-founder of the Port Elizabeth Fertility Clinic – which is not practicing the procedure – said the pregnancy rate from frozen eggs stood at less than 2% worldwide. “There is some progress, but
the process is very much in the research phase. At this
stage, it’s not there for commercial use,” he
said.
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