More couples than ever before are postponing pregnancy by preserving their sperms or eggs
Heard of Nothobranchius? Better known as annual fish, you’d find them in Africa and South America. Only, that is, if you looked for them in the rainy season; they spend their lives in rain-fed ponds and marshes. When the water dries up, they die. But before that, they breed, and bury their eggs under the soil, where they stay until the next rains, when, miraculously, they hatch. The younglings seem to know that the wetlands will dry out, and their lives are short. So, they quickly get down to business, and, like countless generations before them, bury their eggs. Then, of course, the rains end, the water dries up, and they die. But nature’s egg bank makes sure the species survives. Smart lady, Mother Nature.
Dr. Priya Selvaraj, of GG Hospital in Chennai, says she actively discourages women who see egg freezing as a way to get pregnant later. “I tell them, you have to get your priorities right.”
Other practitioners share her view, but where the desire is medically driven, it is encouraged. Like with cancer patients; women who undergo chemotherapy risk becoming sterile. Ahead of treatment, they extract and freeze their eggs. Later, when they get healthy enough to bear a child, they have the option to use their own eggs.
(This story appears in the 19 February, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)