frozen

I went to the doctor today.

Doc:  Hi there!  So you’re here for your annual… would you like STD testing? 

Me:  No thanks, I’m good. 

Doc:  Do you have any partners? 

Me:  Yes…  Actually, we got married this year.  [raise hand to show ring, smile awkwardly]

Doc:  Congratulations!  Are you planning to have kids? 

Me: Uh..  we’ve talked about it… but we’re not trying or anything… 

Doc: Well, don’t stress about it, but if you wait much longer you might want to think about freezing some embryos.  

Didn’t see that coming.  I wonder if all 30-somethings get the same thirty second STD to frozen embryo (or egg) talk.  I thought embryo freezing was mostly for the wealthy celebrity-types (looking at you Sophia Vergara and ex-fiance Nick Loeb).

A quick Google search seems to indicate that “banking” as it’s called appears to be gaining in accessibility and popularity.  Prime candidates for banking include women wanting to delay childbearing for various reasons, and women diagnosed with cancer.  The numbers seem to suggest that the frozen embryos have a better viability success rate when compared to thawing and fertilizing a frozen egg.  But for women without a male partner or sperm donor, or who for whatever reason don’t want to mix before freezing– know that there are many factors that could be skewing these numbers.   And some banking centers report pregnancy rates via frozen eggs as being just as good as via frozen embryos.

Costs total roughly in the $5-10k range for freezing of the embryos/eggs, $500 per year storage fee, and $5k to thaw.  Rumor has it that some insurances may even provide coverage, but I didn’t look that far into it.