Fertility clinics have been able to freeze sperm for years. But freezing a woman's eggs has been extremely difficult. Now experts at Mass General Hospital, and a biotech firm called Viacell, are trying to beat the odds.
The problem with freezing a woman's eggs is they are larger and full of water that can crystallize and destroy the egg. The new procedure injects a simple sugar called trahelose into the egg. Pre-clinical trials on animals show it helps stops the water from crystallizing.
Marc Beer, ViaCell, Inc.
"They can do it in a safe fashion and thaw the egg out and have the egg be a viable egg."
Clinical trials on women should start in the next several months. Everyone is hopeful the procedure will offer hope for many women, especially cancer patients, who's eggs are often destroyed by chemotherapy.
Marc Beer
"Harvesting the oocytes, the female egg, before treatment can offer those patients tremendous advantage."
But while fertility experts applaud the research, they say it's too early.
Dr. Elizabeth Ginsburg, Brigham & Women's Hospital
"Since we don't really know what fertilization rates are we don't know if 12 eggs are going to result in one embryo, two embryos, in ten embryos, or in zero embryos in most cases."
They caution this may not be a good option for women wishing to delay motherhood.
Dr. Elizabeth Ginsburg
"It would be unfortunate if women took this to mean that they didn't have to worry about any kind of biological clock. Because there is no guarantee that if eggs are frozen, even if the protocol most of the time works, that that woman's eggs are going to result in a baby in the future."
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