As a result of the survey on maternity and fertility trends carried out by IVI in our country, we observed a pressing need to raise awareness and inform about oocyte vitrification, the technique that women have available to reconcile work/study life with their health plans. be mothers
Preserve fertility so as not to give up anything
In terms of birth rates, our society reflects a clear -and worrying- trend: the time to become mothers is increasingly delayed. The decline in birth rates, coupled with an aging population, only results in the well-known ‘demographic winter’. A situation that leads to a complicated generational replacement.
“Then this extensive fertility and maternity survey, led by IVI, emerges, from which multiple data emerge that help us to clarify what are the factors that influence women and their attitude towards motherhood, as well as the tools that we can make available to them to facilitate decision-making in the freest and most autonomous way possible, within the socio-economic framework that surrounds them”says the doctor Ana Cobodirector of the IVI Valencia Cryobiology Unit.
Factors that stand in the way of motherhood
In this sense, we can mainly highlight two. In the first place, work-life balance or, better said, the difficulty in reconciling work life with family life. This is a fact that affects to a greater extent the profile of women with a high socio-economic level. On the other hand, the insufficiency of economic resources, a more relevant aspect for those participants in the survey with a medium socio-economic level.
“These variables lead a growing number of women to postpone their decision to have children, and techniques such as oocyte vitrification make sense. It is an alternative that allows today’s women to preserve their fertility and postpone their gestational desire in favor of other areas of their lives, but without having to give up being mothers in the future with their own eggs. Thus, the vitrification of oocytes makes it possible to choose freely and without pressure the moment and the way in which women wish to face the adventure of being mothers”explains Dr. Cobo.
More information is needed on vitrification
The survey carried out by IVI reflects that 57% of the participants consider that they have little or no information on egg vitrification. A high percentage considering that it is a technique on the rise today. However, in our clinics, during the last year and compared to the previous one, these treatments have increased by 36%.
“In terms of information accessibility, and comparing all the techniques and treatments that exist in our country, vitrification is one of the least known. It is only followed by the ROPA method (Reception of Oocytes from the Couple), designed for female couples. It is still striking in the social context in which we find ourselves”adds Dr. Cobo.
Preserve yes, but at the right time
On the other hand, only 21% of the study participants know that the best age to vitrify is before 35 years of age. It is from this age when female fertility is seriously reduced, losing quality and quantity. The remaining percentage of respondents does not determine a maximum age up to which it is advisable to preserve fertility, providing very varied figures. This does nothing more than point out a deep ignorance about this technique.
“In fact, 26% of those surveyed do not know what is the ideal time for vitrification, a significantly marked lack of knowledge in the 36 to 39-year-old section. If we refer to our experience at IVI, the average age of our vitrification patients for social reasons reaches 36 years. Given this scenario, it is essential to bet on intensive awareness and dissemination of information, so that women know the options they have to be able to reconcile their family life with work/studies, as well as the best time to do so and increase their future possibilities. And it is that, currently, as we explained in our previous data block of the survey, focused on the reasons why women do not have children today, reconciliation problems are one of the main reasons why they do not have children. sons”concludes Dr. Cobo.
Young people more aware
However, we must also highlight that the younger respondents seem to be more aware of their pace of life and their social, economic and work ambitions. As a result of this awareness, they are the ones that show a greater predisposition to carry out a social preservation of fertility. Around 50% of those belonging to the age group of 25 to 35 years would undergo a vitrification with a safety measure to be mothers with their own eggs in the future.
