According to an article in the August 2011 issue of Fertility & Sterility, the Israel National Bioethics Council (INBC) issued recommendations permitting egg freezing to prevent both disease and age-related decline in fertility. The INBC considers age-related infertility a medical problem and treats the new technology favorably as preventive medicine. As a comparison, the major regulatory bodies in Europe and the U. S. consider the procedure experimental for fertility preservation unless for a medical reason such as cancer treatment. Treating this as preventive medicine allows women to avoid the need for egg donation and ineffective infertility treatments at an advanced age.
Two recent studies demonstrated that the risk of congenital anomalies is similar to natural conception as well as conception from IVF cycles. But since the technology is so new, there are no long-term data concerning the health or emotional well-being of children conceived from frozen eggs.
I believe that the Israelis are way ahead of other western countries in accepting this technology and that it will ultimately be accepted in Europe and the U. S. as more experience is gained. At Reproductive Partners we have seen that this is an effective technique to preserve fertility for both medical and social reasons.
