NPR Wholeheartedly Endorses Women Freezing Eggs; Fails to Disclose Risks
On Tuesday's Morning Edition, NPR's Jennifer Ludden all but acted as an proponent of egg donation and freezing to preserve women's fertility, but failed to acknowledge the dangers associated with the donation process, ranging from negative psychological effects to kidney failure and death. Ludden barely touched on other risks to the procedures, such as using them to permit women over 50 become pregnant. The correspondent began her report by hyping the emotion behind the problem the donation and freezing procedures aim to fix: the declining fertility of women 40 years of age and older: LUDDEN: Two dozen women, all of a certain age, sit in folding chairs in a Manhattan office building. They balance cell phones and glasses of wine. DOCTOR ALAN COPPERMAN: Hi, nice to meet you all, thank you for coming out tonight- LUDDEN: Alan Copperman is with Reproductive Medicine Associates. He's headlining this seminar on how to take control of your fertility. He wastes no time laying out this harsh reality: by the time a woman hits her 40's, 90 percent of her eggs are abnormal. The chances of a typical 40-year-old getting pregnant in any given month: 10 percent- unless, she gets pregnant with her younger eggs, eggs she's frozen years before . He explains the procedure, introduces someone who's gone through it, and takes a flurry of questions- questions I'm not allowed to record because- it's clear from the many who don't want to speak with me- this is an emotional and private decision . The session wraps up in about an hour. (audio clip of audience applause) Women crowd a counter to set up appointments with Copperman's clinic, which offers egg freezing. Sally Montgomery is among the youngest here, and most upbeat. Her mom had trouble conceiving, so she wants to be pro-active. But- SALLY MONTGOMERY: I'm 31, your typical New Yorker. I'm single- like, I'm bouncing around, and I'd like the opportunity to have a family. And so, I just figured, why not? I mean, I don't think it's a guarantee, but it's a nice insurance policy, and I think it takes some of the pressure off. LUDDEN: Others, though, slip out quietly. One 40-year-old says she wishes she'd learned about egg freezing earlier . Ludden then summarized what the donation side of the burgeoning industry entailed and played up the benefits: LUDDEN: The whole process- a week of hormones, the procedure to collect the eggs- runs 12 to 14 thousand dollars, and since it takes 10 to 20 eggs for a reasonable shot at success, some may need to do this several times , plus there's annual storage fees. Then, when you're ready to use your eggs, you'll need in-vitro fertilization, another pricey procedure. All told, costs can easily exceed 40 grand….This is not lost on Dr. Copperman. In his office, high above busy Madison Avenue, he says he hopes the procedure becomes easier and cheaper. Still, he says freezing eggs offers many women the biggest game changer since the birth control pill 50 years ago . COPPERMAN: Women began to have reproductive choices. They got to decide when not to get pregnant. This technology has the potential to help women decide when they can get pregnant . LUDDEN: …Over the years, egg freezing has been offered mainly to cancer patients facing radiation, but success rates were pretty dismal. Of late though, the technology has exploded, thanks to scientific leaps, including a flash-freeze method called vitrification. In Copperman's lab, you can hear the sizzle as a tiny tube is plunged into liquid nitrogen….. With this better survival rate, more and more clinics are offering what they call fertility preservation, and the early adopters are starting to come back and use their eggs . (audio clip of infant making noises) ROBYN ROSS: Yeah, that's right! LUDDEN: In a New York high-rise, eight-month-old Camden bounces in her baby saucer. She's here thanks to eggs her mom froze several years ago. What the NPR correspondent completely omitted is something even the New York Times recognized in a May 15, 2007 report: the down sides, to say the least, of the egg donation process. Reporter Roni Caryn Rabin noted that ” egg extraction is time consuming, and it is not comfortable. For some women, it can be painful .” She then listed the many detrimental side effects: The drugs may cause bloating, weight gain, moodiness and irritability , and there is a risk of a rare condition called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome that can cause life-threatening complications, blood clots and kidney failure .
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on June 1, 2011. Filed under