An alternative to egg freezing
With all the buzz about tech companies paying to freeze eggs for career-focused women who want to ‘wait,’ there are a lot of women who are upset, and a lot of women who are happy. Really, I believe women should have a CHOICE about when to have a child. They deserve not to be judged if they shall choose to wait until later in life to start a family.
Before I go into this more, I want to say that there are some serious cases in which egg freezing is a helpful technological innovation. If a woman is about to undergo chemotherapy or is coming from a lineage in which all the women go into early menopause, I would say egg freezing is a good option.
Egg freezing, unless you work at a company that is paying for it like Facebook or Google, will cost about $10K for the initial harvesting of eggs and another $1k every year you want to keep them frozen. And, honestly, there is a fair bit of data suggesting that these frozen eggs are just as good as in the body. The little-talked-about underbelly of choosing this route, however, is that the only way to use these frozen eggs is to do in-vitro fertilization. So, are you ready for another investment of $15K?
The cost to your body for egg freezing is yet to be determined. Mostly, there are no serious immediate repercussions, but the long-term studies are lacking. We do know, however, that during this process, your body will be exposed to lots of exogenous hormones, which are meant to unnaturally stimulate the production, maturation, and release of multiple egg follicles in one cycle so that they can be harvested. Is this worthwhile? Or is there another less invasive option?
Well, I believe that the natural approaches that help to preserve fertility are actually the same things that will help you keep looking young and gorgeous, and keep you healthy for many years to come.
These are my top 5 suggestions:
- Detoxify your body with a fertility-focused cleanse, if possible, at least twice a year (I recommend in the spring and fall, which follow the normal rhythms and patterns of the universe).
- Stay away from plastics. The xenoestrogens that go into the body affect your hormones significantly. They are found in water bottles, aluminum cans, and plastic bags. Also, BPA- shown to affect fertility- is highest in cash register receipts! So, avoid those things at the very least.
- Avoid GMOs like the plague. Though the research is lacking (because it’s actually unethical to conduct such studies), seeds that are modified to self-terminate are likely to have a similar effect on your reproduction.
- Avoid smoking and alcohol. There’s plenty of research that suggests that both of these decrease fertility in men and women.
- Hydrate. This may sound simple but we really need enough water to keep balance and rhythm in the body. Dehydration, like starvation, is a major stressor for the body and, as we all well know, stress decreases fertility. www.draumatma.com
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