00:06oocyte cryopreservation also known as egg freezing the idea extract a woman's
00:13eggs and keep them in a medical bank until the woman is ready to have a baby
00:17modern women looking to start a family later in life see this as a way to beat their biological
00:23clock however in asia it's not so straightforward asia's future is now it's making massive strides
00:35in its economies human development technology but for the region to truly reach its full potential
00:41it needs to empower women who face draconian laws and outdated customs i'm natasha gutierrez in this
00:48series i meet the women who are directly impacted by these barriers why are we still so unequal
01:01this all began because i personally started looking into egg freezing when i hit 30 i started to feel
01:07the pressures of having a baby because everyone around me seemed to be having them but i'm not
01:12ready now and i'm not sure if i ever will be so here in singapore where i work women are
01:17only
01:17allowed to freeze their eggs if they have a medical condition in the philippines where i'm from women
01:23are allowed to freeze their eggs but can only use them if they get married shouldn't women be allowed
01:28to decide when to have babies women especially in asia feel tremendous pressure to have babies from
01:37society and from their families but more and more women today are choosing to delay their pregnancies for
01:43social reasons like their career or finding a suitable partner making egg freezing an attractive
01:50option amanda an australian expat living in singapore has her own reasons
01:59amanda lost her husband to cancer a few years ago while they were both working in singapore they missed
02:05out on the opportunity to conceive while he was alive so she recently decided to freeze her eggs
02:11so how has freezing your eggs sort of opened you up to less of that pressure um i think it's
02:21it's meant
02:22that you know when i did it i was deep in grief right and you know after he died you
02:29don't think
02:30about how there's going to be an end to it right like you don't know how you're ever going to
02:34get out
02:35of it and so for me freezing my eggs was something where um it allowed me to take control and
02:43it
02:43allowed me to not have to worry about the next boyfriend or put pressure on like if he was going
02:48to be the person i was going to spend the next rest of my life with because it meant that
02:52it gave me time
02:55after ryan's death amanda was forced to think about planning ahead
02:59she visited a fertility clinic to explore her options and decided to freeze her eggs
03:05egg freezing is essentially in vitro fertilization or ivf except rather than freezing an embryo
03:11it's only a woman's unfertilized reproductive eggs harvested from her ovaries that are frozen
03:18when she's ready for a baby the egg is later thawed fertilized with a sperm and when it's
03:24successfully turned into an embryo it's implanted back into her uterus while the technology is
03:30available in singapore however amanda had to go home to australia for the procedure
03:38in singapore egg freezing is not permitted for social reasons it's only allowed if a woman has
03:44medical conditions that would affect her fertility such as a woman undergoing chemotherapy for cancer
03:51so for women like amanda who want to freeze for non-medical reasons they have to look outward
03:56and have the procedure done in other countries which have more lenient laws but finding a country
04:02to do it is only the first of many obstacles how about the actual decision of putting your body through
04:12it
04:12i had many conversations about it and it's not an easy thing on your body like you do you have
04:21a lot
04:21of hormones put into your body during the process like you have to stab yourself with needles every
04:26you know few hours to make sure that those hormones and you're producing as many eggs as you can
04:31i was crying for that entire like three week three week process because of all the hormones in your body
04:38so
04:38it's not an easy process at all but it is it was like a decision that at the end of
04:46the day i had
04:48to make right i was very lucky in that i got a very good haul of eggs so i have
04:57a good stash sitting
04:58away which is quite nice and i'm glad that i don't have to do it again i know women that
05:03had only had two
05:05or three eggs taken like per round and i'm very lucky in that i got more than that and so
05:12i don't
05:13have to put my body through that again because i really wouldn't want to do that despite that haul
05:19how how sure are we that that will yield some children for you and we're not sure at all
05:26amanda is right while the science allows for it to happen the odds of frozen eggs resulting in babies
05:32are still unclear it's much harder to thaw an unfertilized egg without damage than thawing an
05:38embryo so ivf with frozen eggs tend to be less successful the more eggs are retrieved and frozen
05:44from a woman the better their odds early data from the human fertilization and embryology authority in
05:51the united kingdom puts a success rate of live births from frozen eggs at just 19 percent in australia just
05:5940 babies were born from frozen eggs in the last two years on average 500 cycles of egg freezing are
06:05performed annually in the country but to many women these odds are better than nothing despite
06:11the challenges of egg freezing women like amanda still consider doing this as an option because of
06:17the time that it affords them to decide when and how they want to have children
06:24asur wang a singaporean actress model and entrepreneur decided at the age of 36 to freeze her eggs
06:31after being told by doctors she could have difficulty conceiving naturally
06:35in 2018 she flew to bangkok to freeze her eggs she published a series of vlogs about her entire
06:42experience to raise awareness about the issue today she has some incredible news first of all congratulations
06:49in your pregnancy thank you say finally the time is here that's amazing how far along are you i am
06:58uh
06:58five months today after also got married in 2020 she successfully got pregnant through ivf on her first
07:06attempt she didn't end up using any of her frozen eggs but she has no regrets since we last spoke
07:14asur has given birth to a healthy baby girl i think what people don't seem to understand or that they
07:21don't think about is that yes we do have the option to freeze our eggs and we do have the
07:25options to dig
07:26into those eggs but as a doctor they would always want a fresh batch of eggs i froze my eggs
07:32when i was
07:32single and i feel like that was the best gift i think anyone a woman could give themselves and i
07:39do have 17
07:40eggs stored which i did not use but i can happily say now like i feel secure while also is
07:46an advocate
07:46for social egg freezing and allowing women to take control of their own timelines she does recognize
07:52that it's a difficult decision aside from legalities and the physical toll to the body there's yet another
07:58crucial factor cost in australia while those with medical reasons to freeze their eggs can get government
08:05subsidies it can cost up to ten thousand dollars to freeze your eggs for social reasons in thailand
08:12clinics charge four thousand dollars which does not include the monthly charges of storing those eggs
08:17as well as costs for the thawing the fertilization and the implantation an everyday woman might not have
08:26the financial ability to be able to do what i did and a woman that's working a nine-to-five
08:33job every day
08:33are they able to take two weeks off to go fly to bangkok to go freeze their eggs probably not
08:40and
08:40then if they are that's great but then you gotta think of accommodation are you gonna pay for i don't
08:46know an airbnb or a hotel to stay at for two weeks on top of that medical bills realistically i
08:53mean that
08:54that's really like not every woman could do that also spent over thirty thousand dollars for her entire
09:00procedure she said the investment was worth the security and control it afforded her she doesn't
09:06just want to see social egg freezing legalized she also hopes to see government subsidize it particularly
09:12for single women who might need more help paying for it ultimately what would you want to see what do
09:19you think should the policy be when it comes to women being able to freeze their eggs i think we
09:25should
09:25be able to do whatever the damn well we want to do like i don't feel like there should be
09:30a black and
09:30white as a you know um oh i i have to be married to be able to go through ibf
09:38i have i don't feel like
09:40why do we need these rules we are capable of being our own parents of what we want we don't
09:48need people to
09:49tell us this is what's good for you this is all part of life the technology may be here but
09:56in reality
09:57women have a long way to go to have full freedom and control over their bodies until governments
10:03stop dictating when and how women should give birth egg freezing is an option available only for a small
10:09sector of women
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