Singapore to allow women, including singles, to freeze their eggs for non-medical reasons
Women aged between 21 and 35 can undergo elective or social egg freezing from next year. PHOTO: ST FILE
SINGAPORE - After years of deliberation, women - regardless of their marital status - will soon be allowed to freeze their eggs for non-medical reasons to preserve their fertility.
Women aged between 21 and 35 can undergo elective egg freezing, which is done for non-medical reasons, with the introduction of the Assisted Reproduction Services Regulations under the Healthcare Services Act early next year (2023).
However, only legally married couples can use their frozen eggs to try for a baby through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
This is in line with existing IVF rules and the idea of "upholding parenthood within marriage".
The changes, outlined in a White Paper on Singapore Women's Development released on Monday (March 28), mark a major shift in policy.
Now, women can freeze their eggs for only medical reasons, such as when they have to undergo chemotherapy, which may adversely affect their fertility.
Speaking to reporters earlier in March ahead of the White Paper's release, Ms Sun Xueling, Minister of State for Social and Family Development, said: "We recognise that there may be women who are not able to find a suitable partner when they are younger, but they still wish to be able to preserve the likelihood of conceiving when they marry later."
However, there will be "adequate safeguards" in place to ensure that women make a well-informed choice, Ms Sun added.
For instance, she said women will be counselled before they freeze their eggs to help them understand the invasive nature of the procedure, limitations such as the low success rates of the procedure leading to a baby being born, and the risk of having babies at an older age, among other things.
Medical research in other countries has found that the chance of a frozen egg leading to a baby being born is about 2 per cent to 12 per cent, Ms Sun said.
The studies also found that a very small proportion of women - less than 10 per cent - use their frozen eggs in the end.
Egg freezing preserves fertility as the age of the eggs remains unchanged from the moment they are frozen.
According to doctors, a woman is born with a finite number of eggs, with the number and quality of eggs declining as she ages.
As such, the chances of a woman getting pregnant decreases as she ages.
