Women, doctors in favour of White Paper's proposal to legalise elective egg freezing

SINGAPORE — To Ms Emma Zhang, travelling to America to undergo egg freezing was always something she had thought of doing since she first started researching about it in 2019, but she put it off because she did not have “three to four weeks to spend there undergoing the procedure”.

So when it was announced on Monday (March 28) that women aged between 21 and 35 in Singapore may be allowed to freeze their eggs for non-medical reasons as early as next year, she was elated. 

“It’s fantastic news,” said Ms Zhang, who founded the Instagram page myeggsmytime, which advocates for legalising egg freezing in Singapore. 

“I started the Instagram page a year ago and I felt like this would never happen anytime soon,” the 33-year-old said. 

The recommendation to make elective egg freezing legal is one of several proposals put forth in a White Paper on women’s development in Singapore which was submitted to Parliament on Monday.

If the White Paper is endorsed by Parliament, the implementation of the elective egg freezing will take place in early 2023, in tandem with the introduction of the Assisted Reproduction Services Regulations under the Healthcare Services Act.

PROVIDING AN OPTION

Women TODAY spoke to expressed support for the proposal, saying that it will help give them the option of having a child later. 

“I'm not sure whether I want children but I would like the option one day. I just feel like I'm not ready right now,” said Ms Zhang, who is newly married and cited reasons such as her career and the pandemic for putting this decision on hold. 

To Ms Eileen, who declined to give her full name as she works in the public sector, having the option to freeze her eggs will make her feel less worried and pressured as she will have a healthy egg in the event of her getting married later than expected.  

She turns 33 this year and is currently single.

When asked if they will undergo the procedure should it become legal, both Ms Zhang and Ms Eileen readily agreed. 

“I will definitely opt for it if I can afford it. I want to make sure I’m fully ready — mentally, financially and emotionally, to be a mother,” Ms Eileen said. 

But Ms Zhang said that the rule of allowing only married couples to use the frozen eggs for procreation is “problematic”. 

“A lot of the women who reached out to me on my platform said that they don’t want to get married but they still want children,” she said.

“There are also many same sex couples who want to have children. So in this case, being able to freeze their eggs will help them but they won’t be able to use it to have children because same sex marriage is not recognised by the law.” 

THE AGE FACTOR

Doctors TODAY spoke to said the qualifying age range of 21 to 35 is reasonable.

“The egg count and quality drops and the rate of decline tends to be faster over 35. So it's a good idea to encourage women who want to do egg freezing to do it before 35,” said Dr Kelly Loi, the medical director of the Mount Elizabeth Hospital Fertility Centre.

Agreeing, Dr Paul Tseng, the medical director at Centre for Assisted Reproduction, said: “When a patient passes the age of 35, the egg quality does deteriorate and the patient may have a higher incidence of chromosome problems.” 

Ms Anna Haotanto is someone who had undergone egg freezing in September 2018 in Malaysia, when she was 32.

The founder of The New Savvy, a financial, investments and career platform for women in Asia, said that she never regretted her decision. 

But she stressed the importance of education and greater awareness about the procedure, so that women who are considering it will know what to expect.

She also urged women to start considering it early, so they can start planning for it financially since the procedure is “not cheap”.

COST OF PROCEDURE

Though Dr Tseng said that it is difficult to give an exact figure, he estimated that the cost of the procedure could go up to around S$15,000.

Doctors and women TODAY spoke to acknowledged that it is a costly procedure and not many may be able to afford it.

"I recognise that this is an expensive procedure and you do need to come from a certain background and have a certain amount of money to be able to afford it," said Ms Zhang. 

To address this, Dr Loi and Ms Zhang suggested setting up a programme to allow younger women to donate a portion of their eggs to those who are unable to afford the procedure, or are older.