Delaying motherhood through “Social Freezing”. This is the latest trend, not only worldwide but also in Italy. According to Silvia Colamaria, a gynecologist and obstetrician specializing in reproductive medicine, working at the Genera Center in Rome, after Covid, fertility preservation procedures for personal and non-medical reasons are in fact growing by 20% every year, recording very important numbers. The beneficiaries are mainly graduate and wealthy women between 30 and 40 years old.
INSIGHTS
Bianca Balti: «Egg freezing? I would like to give it to my daughter Matilde so she can live her life and become a mother whenever she wants »
Choosing to freeze your eggs
The practice of “Social Freezing” continues to increase in Italy too, the fertility preservation technique that can be requested by women who wish to plan a pregnancy in the future, guaranteeing a greater probability of success in the event that, with the passage of time , experience difficulties in conceiving due to a physiological reduction in their fertility. This therapy has returned to the spotlight thanks to the model Bianca Balti, who a few days ago had confessed on social media that she wanted to give her daughter the possibility of cryopreserving her oocytes, as she herself did: «I told my daughter Matilde, who is now 17 years old: “When you’re 21 I give you social freezing, so you don’t think about it anymore, you make your own life and when you want to get pregnant you already have everything you need.” It would be great if it were free for all, so as not to have the pressure of the biological clock. In life we need to think about what is important to us. For me this was a choice that gave me freedom, especially in my case of not staying in a relationship just for fear of not being able to have my third motherhood. An investment we make in ourselves. The fact is that we women are not used to doing it without guilt.”
The increase in the procedure in Italy
Bianca Balti’s choice is shared by many other people, Italian and otherwise. As explained to beraking latest news Salute by Silvia Colamaria, gynecologist and obstetrician, specialized in reproductive medicine, working at the Genera Center in Rome, since 2021 there have been more and more women resorting to this therapy: «Fertility preservation procedures for personal and non-medical reasons grow by approximately 20%, year after year. But women still know too little about it. And the numbers in absolute terms are not high. Very often we find ourselves having patients who tell us: I didn’t even know it existed. In my opinion, the message is very beautiful: it is trying to give a little rebalancing to that great biological injustice that exists between men and women.” «Unfortunately today – reasons the doctor – we live in a society that leads us to try to get pregnant often too late compared to how our ovaries and our reproductive system work. At 40 we are “young”, often at the beginning of our career, perhaps we still have to settle down or establish ourselves economically, but unfortunately biologically from a reproductive point of view it is very late. Already after the age of 35 it is more difficult to get pregnant and the risks associated with maternal age, the risk of miscarriage and chromosomal anomalies increase. As a gynecologist who deals with this, I would go to universities to say: girls, study, have your career but think either about having children first, if the conditions are right, or about putting something aside. It’s not a guarantee of anything but it’s a bit like trying to stop time. A small blank check”, the expert defines it.
@ilmessaggero.it “You should have your first child at 27 and your second at 32.” Fabrizio Cerusico, gynecologist and fertility expert at the talk #VeryWoman reflects on some important challenges to combat female infertility and on the solutions proposed by medicine. . . . [#IlMessaggero] #fabriziocerusico #ovums #donna #fertility #salute #medicine #socialfreezing #children #family #age ♬ Chill Vibes – Tollan Kim
The best moment and the identikit of those who do social freezing
«Do I like Bianca Balti’s message? Yes. Maybe 21 years is also a little early, in the sense that freezing eggs at 20 or 30 years old makes no difference from a scientific point of view. The difference makes itself after the age of 35-36. Ideally, in fact, scientific literature recommends evaluating it before the age of 35, i.e. in the window in which we have the best oocyte quality available. So, it is certainly a strong message”, that of Bianca Balti, “made by an entertainer who has an influence on young people”, therefore an informative potential.
The identikit of those who do social freezing today? “They are still people from a medium-high socioeconomic class,” because of the cost. «Women with a degree and informed about their biological age and the risk of pregnancy failure after a certain threshold. Most are between 30 and 40 years old. And after the age of 35-37 the specific case is evaluated, in the sense that technically it can be frozen, but various factors must be evaluated: the ovarian reserve, the number of eggs that we can potentially freeze to make the cost-benefit ratio favorable”. Mothers accompanying their daughters? «We see some of them», says Colamaria.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED