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Home / Healthcare & Medicine / Fertility & Birth / Making Babies in the 21st Century / Egg freezing – a perspective

Egg freezing – a perspective

Interview with Kalli about her decision to freeze her eggs
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The reason why I chose to become an egg freezing patient was because of personal reasons I just wanted to have the option of having children later on in my life. Because I come from a family that is very family orientated and there was always some pressure on me as to when I am I going to have children and when am I going to have my own family. And me starting getting older, trying to pursue my career more and more I decided that I will freeze my eggs in order to have the option of having children later on. And that actually took a lot of pressure off.
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There was a lot of support from CRGH in me going through the procedure, there was support from the doctors, the nurses, as well as the embryology team. They made me feel very comfortable and it honestly felt like a very easy journey. The fact that many companies now days offer the egg freezing option to their employees, I think it was only a matter of time to be honest before they start doing it because women are, nowadays, are expected to perform as well as men in their careers. So I don’t see why they shouldn’t have the option when for a woman time is an issue where for a man it is not. It definitely takes a lot of weight off your shoulders.
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I don’t have to think anymore that, you know, I have to have children because I know that I am not going to be able to have them in a few years. And that takes off a lot of pressure in terms of me pursuing my career and probably making the right choices with a partner that I want to be. Being able to do the egg freezing definitely stops your clock from ticking now. It is still out there and the clock is still ticking so, I know that in a few years I won’t be able to try naturally at all to have babies. Maybe I won’t even be able to try assisted reproduction with fresh eggs.
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I am probably going to have to go straight to my frozen eggs. Even having IVF requires that you have eggs to do it. And therefore by freezing eggs at least you are guaranteed that you are going to be able to have your own-, biologically own children in the future. In terms of the procedure, it is like you are climbing on a mountain basically. So you start climbing on a mountain. But as you come for your scans every other day and you see the follicles growing then you start building up your hopes and everything becomes easier as well, taking your injections becomes easier, I mean there is always support from all the staff for anyone that may ask.
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And you start building up your hopes until you are ready. And then you go in theatre for your-, the operating theatre for your egg collection. And this is probably one of the procedures that most women are scared of but honestly it was very, very easy. As soon as the procedure is done then you only have recovering for a couple of hours and then you are free to go home. And probably a couple of hours later we-, well I received a phone call from one of my colleagues telling me how many eggs were suitable for freezing and that everything went well and the eggs have now been frozen. I had enormous support from my family.
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They couldn’t understand at the beginning why I was freezing eggs and I wasn’t having children. But I explained to them that is something different in at that time. They were very, very supportive in my decision and my choices.

Meet Kalliope, a young, female embryologist working at CRGH, a premier fertility clinic in London. Kalliope spends her working week improving the fertility chances of her clients, but she has also thought a lot about her own fertility options as well.

In this interview, she tells us why she has chosen to freeze her own eggs. Whilst aware that this is not a choice that all women might make, she explains how this is right for her, at this time in her life.

Kalliope wants to have a family but, at the moment, she is focused on her career and her work, as well as her own life. Like many women of her generation, she has chosen to delay childbearing until later on in life.

Although not a decision she took lightly, Kalliope is happy to have frozen her eggs, and she feels like a burden has been lifted from her, now that she knows she has more options available to her if and when she does decide to have a family.

Join the discussion: What do you think are the reasons that make young people today, of any sex, delay childbearing? Are there both positive and negative drivers involved? Which ones do you think are the most important?

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This content is taken from UCL (University College London) online course
Making Babies in the 21st Century
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Making Babies in the 21st Century

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