Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Bioethics researcher Dr Molly Johnson has found most women have no idea about the emotional or psychological challenges they will face when their storage time limit expires.For many earlier adopters of commercial egg-freezing – which is offered by around 100 clinics nationally – that deadline is approaching.Shifra Bendet, with dogs Bruno, Ollie and Piper, says freezing her eggs around eight years ago took the pressure off making choices around her fertility.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui“We know very few people come back to use their eggs [around 10 per cent] so it leads to the question of what happens to those eggs,” says Johnson, a research fellow and lecturer at Monash Bioethics Centre.“Most of them don’t ever consider the prospect they will have to deal with eggs at the end of a storage period.”Johnson’s study found 75 per cent of egg-freezing patients surveyed do not recall having a conversation or receiving information about a decision many go on to find fraught with fear of regret.LoadingAround one third of women (30 per cent) in her study who had eggs at one of Melbourne’s largest clinics said they would be reluctant to discard them and regarded the choice as “a last resort”.“For some people, it’s not challenging: they see their eggs as just a cell, so they don’t have any issues about letting them go,” says Johnson.“But for a lot of people, they find it a really challenging decision … if they are struggling with fertility issues and worried about anticipated regret and wanting to hold on to their eggs just in case.”Deciding whether to discard their eggs, give them to a couple or single woman whose own eggs are not viable, or donate them to research “can become a significant emotional burden for patients and source of moral stress”, especially given the time pressure, Johnson said.As vigorous marketing for egg-freezing shifts from presenting it as a service available to help overcome existing infertility, to advising young women they could use it as “empowerment” against the risk of later fertility issues, more women are likely to face this tension.LoadingDr Karin Hammarberg, adjunct senior research fellow at Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, has studied women’s decision-making around excess IVF embryos, and said clinics could improve discussion with patients about the longer-term implications.When the time comes, the decision can be so difficult that “often, people will just drift away and avoid making a decision at all”.“They don’t open up the registered mail, or move without giving a forwarding address, they just can’t make a decision,” she said. “Sometimes people will become untraceable and part of that is to avoid making the decision.”This implied that better communication with patients at the beginning and more support was needed: “This is not about a brochure, it’s actually a conversation for a professional counsellor,” said Hammarberg.“Clinics are very good at advertising egg freezing, but if you look at their websites, there’s often no mention of potential downstream problems.”Bendet says though she has not had the discussion with the clinic where her eggs are stored, she has considered what she will do, should she have any to spare.“If I don’t need them, and if the option is available to donate them, my preference would be to donate them to someone who wasn’t able to have children,” she said. “That’s a beautiful thing to do, and if I was in a position where I couldn’t produce eggs, I would love someone to do that for me.”Make the most of your health, relationships, fitness and nutrition with our Live Well newsletter. Get it in your inbox every Monday.
