When fertility preservation is necessary

Advances in assisted conception have enabled preservation of fertility for various reasons. You can literally maintain your fertility potential way beyond the limits of natural conception. The choice is between freezing fertilised eggs (called embryos), or freezing the eggs themselves. Your man can also freeze his sperms for future use. Once frozen, the embryos, eggs or sperms remain ready to be used for pregnancy at a time of your choice. This can be many years in the future.

You can choose to preserve your fertility either because of medical or social reasons. Medical reasons for fertility preservation are mainly occasioned by a diagnosis of cancer well before child-bearing is complete. Cancer treatments tend to damage the function of the ovaries (and testes in men), thereby limiting the potential to achieve a pregnancy following recovery from the cancer. Once a diagnosis of some cancer is made in young age, affected women (and men) can go through the process of fertility preservation prior to commencing treatment. This gives some back-up for future conception should irreversible damage occur in the ovaries or testes following completion of the cancer treatment.