It is estimated
that infertility affects 10 to 15% of our Indian population. This figure is on
the rise in urban India due to the addition of a large number of women who have
difficulty conceiving due to the trend of delayed child bearing. Women are now
concentrating more on their careers due to a paradigm shift in the mindset of
our society and women empowerment. Starting a family and having a baby has
taken a back seat - ‘voluntary infertility’. But we must remember that nature
is biased against women since they have a rapid reduction in their ovarian
reserve after the age of 32 unlike their male counterparts. Ovarian reserve is
defined as the quantity and quality of eggs present in women at a particular
time. A newborn baby girl is born with a finite number of eggs in her ovaries
around a million at the time of birth. At the time of puberty, 3 lakh eggs
remain out of which only 400-450 ovulate, and the other thousands degenerate.
As the woman’s age advances, there is a rapid decline in not only the number of
eggs, but also the quality. The exact reason why this happens is still a
mystery, however, it is how human biology is and we can do little to stop it.
In fact, various studies have shown that the ovaries of Indian women age six
years faster than their Caucasian counterparts-implicating we Indian women need
to be even more careful.
Mrs. X working
at an MNC in Chandigarh has reached a
peak in her career at the age of 36 years but is now struggling to conceive, visiting
multiple infertility clinics and has spent lakhs of rupees to get pregnant. She
isn’t the only one. There are a growing number of women who postpone childbearing
due to either delayed marriage, career preferences or a desire to be financially
independent before starting a family. Some women even want to postpone
childbearing till their late thirties and forties after settling down in their
professions.
However,
the biological and professional clocks in women seem to be working in the
opposite directions. They are thus faced with the predicament of having to
choose either their career or motherhood.
With
the advancements in modern technology, it is now possible to cryopreserve/freeze
the eggs (female gametes) or embryos (if she has a male partner) of a woman
when she is younger and healthier. In fact, some corporates like Apple and
Facebook are willing to pay for egg freezing for their female employees to
ensure that women don’t compromise on their careers and financial independence.
This technology can help our educated, independent, career-minded “New Woman”,
who defers marriage or childbearing till she feels she is ready helping them to
fulfill the social norms and expectations that construe motherhood as a central
aspect of womanhood. Women have to “have it all”. Science is thus helping women
to temporarily suspend the ticking of their biological clocks and achieving
greater professional heights.
