Freezing hope: Reproductive options in the Czech Republic with social freezing

Social freezing is an option for those who do not want to give up their plans for a family but are not yet at the stage in their life when they want children. A recent Danish study showed that between the ages of 35 and 40, women's fertility declines by 15 percent each year, and after 40, it declines by a third each year. It is well known that the ideal age for a woman to get pregnant is between 20 and 30, but what if circumstances don’t allow it?

What if we do not want to lower our standards for our partner just to beat the stats? What if we finally got the chance to leverage years of studying and hours of overtime and landed that dream job? What if we moved to a new country where we are still settling down and the circumstances do not favor starting a family?

Social freezing, or egg freezing, might just be the "additional insurance" needed to realize your future family plans. We discussed preserving fertility with head doctor Lucie Švabíková from the Prague Fertility Center IVF clinic.

Social freezing is a method of fertility preservation whereby women freeze their eggs when they are of an age when their bodies produce mature and healthy eggs. We store these eggs safely for future use when the woman’s situation regarding starting a family is more favorable. Today, we freeze oocytes through a modern method of shock freezing; this so-called vitrification significantly increases the chance of them being usable after thawing for pregnancy.

The oocyte cryopreservation method is suitable for women aged 25-35, who are planning to start a family in the future but whose circumstances do not allow them to get pregnant at the optimal age when ovarian function is at its best. Most women who come to our clinic do not have a committed partner, are at the peak of their careers, or need to postpone pregnancy for other reasons. Egg freezing is also recommended before a planned removal of the ovaries or during cancer treatment.

Of course, however, I always tell patients that sooner is better than later. A patient's ovarian function is certainly better today than, say, two years from now. So, although the number of quality eggs we can retrieve decreases with a woman's age, she will still increase her chances of a successful pregnancy by freezing them.

First, we will get you booked into our clinic, where the doctor will examine your ovaries and uterus with ultrasound and take blood samples for the AMH hormone test. This will reliably show the current function of the ovaries. The AMH level decreases with age and can be used to determine your chances of achieving pregnancy naturally and check your remaining ovarian reserve.

Subsequently, the doctor will discuss the examination results with you during the same visit and propose a stimulation protocol based on these. Hormonal stimulation, the goal of which is the simultaneous maturation of a larger number of eggs, begins on the first day of your period.

Around day 8, our doctor will check how your ovaries respond to stimulation and how many follicles are maturing. Based on the findings of the ultrasound examination, the doctor will plan to collect the eggs on approximately days 10-14 of your cycle. Egg retrieval is a short fifteen-minute procedure under anesthesia.

Two hours after the procedure, you can already go home accompanied by an escort. The day after the procedure you will be able to resume your normal daily activities.

We can usually complete the whole process within a month. In total, you should count on two 30-minute visits before the examination and one day off work on the day of collection.

Soreness after the procedure is comparable to menstrual pain. The procedure, like any other, has its risks. The most common is hyperstimulation syndrome (about 1-10 percent of cases), i.e., excessive reaction to hormonal stimulation. Our clinic always tries to reduce this risk by administering modern medications. A rare complication, which occurs in 1 percent of all procedures, is bleeding into the abdominal cavity after the procedure. In most cases, however, the woman can go to work the next day after the procedure

Yes. From my experience, I know what kind of pressure is exerted on women who have not yet started a family after their thirties. Although women should not take social freezing as a guaranteed security that they will have a child in the future, as several other factors affect a successful pregnancy and these also worsen with age, I still like to look at social freezing as a kind of "family insurance." I know that under the current circumstances, I am doing my best to preserve my fertility.

Sure, it is quite easy to organize a safe transfer to another country, especially within Europe. Having said that, the Czech Republic is a very popular go-to market for IVF treatments for foreigners, because of the quality and affordability of the medical care, so I would even consider subsequent treatment here.

She can book a consultation at one of the reputable Czech clinics and find out if this solution suits her. Consultations for women or couples are completely for free at IVF Clinic Prague Fertility Centre. I wish everyone interested good luck in choosing the right clinic. It is important to choose a clinic where they feel comfortable and where the doctors, nurses and coordinators will be as supportive as possible.