Early Menopause: Freezing Your Eggs

1 PREDICTING THE LIKELIHOOD OF EARLY MENOPAUSE IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE
"It is very unlikely that you can predict the onset of early menopause, short of suspecting it due to a strong family history. Once you hit early menopause, you no longer have eggs or follicles that are viable for ovulation. Therefore, hormone production discontinues, ending your fertility," says Dr Chua Yang, director, specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist at A Clinic For Women.

2 SINGAPORE LAW DOESN'T ALLOW A WOMAN TO FREEZE HER EGGS FOR SOCIAL REASONS
"You can do this only for medical reasons. For instance, you're about to undergo chemotherapy and would like to preserve your eggs to protect them from the harm of chemotherapy. Currently, the only way a woman can freeze her eggs is to stimulate the eggs through medication, monitor their growth and retrieve as well as store them in an egg bank overseas," notes Dr Chua.
        Dr Kim Hayes, director and managing physician at Complete HealthcareInternational, adds: "Freezing your eggs requires using hormones and invasive procedures. Apart from possible health risks, it's also expensive."

3 YOU NEED TO FIND A SURROGATE
Even if you can afford to freeze your eggs overseas, there's another complication. "The risk of miscarriage is extremely high, due to a lack of ovarian hormonal support, which is necessary in the first trimester of pregnancy," says Dr Chua.
     "It would mean hormonal medication from the start - as soon as the embryo is transferred into you for implantation. So a surrogate pregnancy is your best bet as it will enable you to have a child that is genetically yours."

4 IT'S BEST TO FREEZE YOUR EGGS BEFORE 40
Early menopause may set in when a woman turns 40, but "it's best to freeze your eggs before that, despite the fact that eggs can be kept in an egg bank indefinitely," says Dr Kelly Loi, obstetrician and gynaecologist at Mount Elizabeth Hospital.
     "This is because the quality of your eggs declines as you get older, and the chance of genetic abnormalities gets higher."

DID YOU KNOW?
The symptoms for early menopause are similar to those of normal menopause:
• Reduced menstrual flow, then your periods stop
• Lethargy
• Body aches and pains
• Night sweats
• Reduced libido
• Memory loss
• Hot flashes
• Emotional changes like irritability, mild depression or mood swings
• Insomnia
• Vaginal and skin dryness   

This article was originally published in Simply Her December 2013.