Freezing of Eggs of Healthy Women for Future Use

Miss Cheng Li Hui asked the Minister for Health in view of the increasing number of women getting married later in life or delaying in starting a family, whether the Ministry will consider allowing all healthy women to freeze their eggs so that they will have more opportunities to have healthier children later.

Licensed Assisted Reproduction (AR) Centres in Singapore are allowed to carry out egg freezing in cases where there are medical needs. For example, some women need to undergo medical treatment such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy that will adversely affect their fertility.

Egg freezing carries some risks to the woman: (a) the process of stimulating production and collecting a woman’s eggs for freezing can result in complications such as over-stimulation of the ovaries, bleeding and infection; (b) the risks of developing certain age-related complications during pregnancy are not mitigated by egg freezing. For example, pregnancy-related diabetes and hypertension occurs more frequently in women above 40 years of age. For pregnancy-related diabetes, the risk can be up to 74% higher for mothers above 40 years of age, compared with mothers below 30 years of age.2 In addition, such diseases also impact the growth and development of the unborn child; (c) there is limited information on the long-term outcomes of children born from eggs that have been frozen for extended periods. To date, no long-term follow-up of these children has been published.3

Medically, these issues can be addressed by regulation, as well as enhanced public education and counselling to potential users. However, this issue cannot be decided purely on medical considerations. There are also social and ethical implications that need to be considered carefully. The expectation that egg-freezing guarantees fertility preservation might not be met, thus resulting in greater disappointment for couples who delay marriage and parenthood4 and yet are later not able to conceive using this method. They will be left with few alternatives then. It also introduces questions about the treatment of unused eggs, including whether these eggs can be used for other purposes.

Ultimately, egg freezing, like all other assisted reproduction techniques, is not a guaranteed solution or a panacea to delayed marriages and parenthood. Age-related fertility problems affect both men and women, and there is no better substitute to having healthy children than when couples are relatively young and healthy.

Hence, social egg freezing is currently not allowed. However, we will continue to monitor international developments in the field of social egg freezing and will review our position taking into account the medical and social implications of egg-freezing, as well as prevailing societal norms and values.