Megan Robinson, 37, isn't sure if she wants to have children, but if she does become a mother she hopes it will be with a partner the natural way. In the meantime, as a backup plan, she decided to freeze her eggs. The 43-day process to retrieve her eggs wasn't easy, but she thinks it was worth it.
Robinson faced moments of uncertainty as she jabbed herself daily with painful needles, paying $10,000 out of pocket for the procedure, which is growing in popularity with Canadian women. The total cost, including medication, reached $17,000.
Fertility Inc. Series
This story is part of Fertility Inc., a multi-part series by the Investigative Journalism Bureau that delves into the Wild West of the egg-freezing industry, its aggressive marketing, the high cost and the chances of an eventual successful pregnancy.
A Backup Plan
Robinson viewed egg freezing as a “break glass in case of emergency” plan if she's unable to conceive with a partner in the future. The Vancouver documentary producer invited the Investigative Journalism Bureau to witness her six-week egg-freezing journey — from the $7,632 in hormone medication she took to stimulate her ovaries to produce multiple eggs, to the day when a doctor harvested those eggs for freezing.
The process was not easy or cheap. Only 25 per cent of the embryos created from frozen eggs and transferred into women's wombs in Canada have resulted in a live birth, according to statistics from the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society. But the procedure still gave Robinson a chance, and that was what she wanted.
Two Months in Advance: Counting Follicles
The process begins with a baseline ultrasound to assess a woman's ovaries, which Robinson did at a Vancouver-area fertility clinic. It showed 10 follicles — fluid-filled sacs that hold immature eggs — in her ovaries, a lower-than ideal number, as the average woman of child-bearing age has around 16. Her doctor told her it was unlikely she would end up freezing 10 eggs; not all follicles are guaranteed to mature.
Clinic staff explained that the chances of those frozen eggs becoming a live baby decrease with each step: not all eggs will survive thawing; not all eggs will be successfully fertilized with sperm in a lab to create embryos; and not all embryos will turn into healthy pregnancies. But Robinson told the IJB: “I think it’s worth the risk.”
Days 1 to 26: Priming Stage
The start of Robinson's menstrual cycle marked Day 1, when she began taking estrogen tablets and topical testosterone each morning to help follicle growth and maximize the number of mature eggs to be potentially retrieved. On Day 20, she added a progesterone pill in the evenings, and kept taking those three medications for six more days. During that time, she said she felt lethargic and had no appetite, but continued to go to work and train for a marathon. “I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open,” Robinson said.
Side-effects from the egg-freezing process are common, but not typically severe, and can include mood swings, hot flashes, headaches, nausea, cramping and mild pain.
