Surrogacy is the process of carrying another women’s pregnancy in return of some financial help or some times the surrogate agrees purely for good cause and no payment is involved(most of the time in case of relatives or friends).
Read complete About What is Surrogacy?
In-vitro-fertilization (IVF) is an integral part of surrogacy. In surrogacy, the egg is retrieved from the intended mother and fertilized with the sperm of the intended father through the IVF process. After the formation of the embryo, it further transfers to the surrogate’s womb for further development. In surrogacy also donor egg or donor sperm Read more about How embryos in Surrogacy are transferred?[…]
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list released in 2020 stated that 708 numbers of different mammalian species have enlisted under critically endangered. Some of the significant reasons for the extinction of different animal species are the increased population of humans, environmental changes, exploitation of animals, etc. Now scientists and ecologists Read more about Do Surrogacy can help in saving animals from extinction?[…]
Surrogacy term is derived from the Latin word “Surrogates”, which means a substitute (appointment of an individual in replacing another). In surrogacy medical practice, the surrogate carries the fetus for the intended mother with the intention that relinquishing the child after delivery. In general, surrogacy is an accumulation of medical science with the social acceptance Read more about Medical difficulties which may lead to Surrogacy as last option[…]
Surrogacy is one of the most life-changing decisions that you can make to start your family. Becoming a surrogate is another main decision that a woman makes after keeping several points in mind. It is for those who are carrying someone else’s child – an emotionally taxing process, which comes with all of the risks Read more about Low success rate in surrogacy (Birth) – Miscarriage could be the main cause[…]
It’s absolutely impossible to put a generalized figure about the expenses of surrogacy. It differs among organizations, countries and even among the states. It relies upon the sum and sort of therapies required for the substitute to become pregnant. Just as whether or not protection hers or yours will take care of any clinical expenses. Read more about Surrogacy cost cutting options?[…]
The surrogacy opting intended parents belief disclosure to their children than other ART opting parents The decision to opt assisted reproductive technology (ART) depending upon the infertile couple’s requirement recommended by the doctor is a very tough situation for them. It may be egg donation, donor insemination, and surrogacy. But these couples have also faced Read more about Surrogacy disclosure to Children is more common among ART opting parents[…]
Every virus has a natural capacity to change their structure and function as they continuously evolve through modification of gene that is termed mutations. Thus, a new variant of virus formed with significant or insignificant different properties. Virulence of the mutated virus may be more or less potent than the original virus. Alpha and Delta Read more about How surrogacy industry might get affected of this new omicron covid-19 variant?[…]
The current global approach towards surrogacy is positive. The benefits of commercial global surrogacy are acceptable to the general population. The advantages of surrogacy over inter-country adoption are also significant. All these promising approaches of surrogacy become popular across the globe. In 2004, the worldwide child adoption rate was at its peak, which reached up Read more about Current Surrogacy around the globe[…]
In an independent surrogacy process, one can provide a surrogate mother for own surrogacy process. Usually, in such cases, intended parents prefer to work with their known surrogate mother. Friends or family member of intended parents agrees to work as surrogate mother for them. Using of known surrogate gives an option to intended parents to Read more about Can I provide a surrogate mother for my own surrogacy process?[…]
Freezing surplus eggs and sperm for future use is a common technique used in the assisted reproductive system.
But some concerns need to consider of application of frozen eggs or frozen sperm for future parenting.
Slow freezing and vitrification are two cryopreservation techniques commonly used for egg and sperm freezing.
Currently, human sperm are cryopreserved by applying a slow freezing process, while vitrification is applied for oocytes.
Furthermore, Open Pulled Straw and Closed Pulled Straw are two vitrification systems widely used for gametes and embryos.
However, the application of the open or close method is a debatable discussion.
Some experts believe that the open system provides a better result with an acceptable contamination risk.
But some experts stated that no difference in result for both the system and the closed system is significantly safer than the open system.
Therefore, both these methods have some conflicting results.
Liquid nitrogen is widely used as a cryogenic fluid because of its ability to maintain the ultralow temperature of −196°C that is quite low than water freezing.
At this temperature, physical and chemical reactions slow down and stop the degradation of the preserved material.
But using liquid nitrogen has some drawbacks.
Many microorganisms are able to survive in cryogenic temperatures found in liquid nitrogen and many are the factors that contribute to increasing their resistance to low temperatures.
This increases the scope of cross-contamination through the transmission of pathogens between cryopreserved cell samples during storage in liquid nitrogen.
Cross-contamination is considered a potential risk in assisted reproduction techniques.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV), herpes simplex, adenovirus, and papillomavirus are some viral pathogens that can cross-contaminate the cryopreserved gametes through liquid nitrogen.
Experts are also concerned about Zika virus transmission that may be present in frozen semen for a long period and cause teratogenicity, though no study confirms this finding.
Researchers reported that LN2 vapor is a safer alternative option to liquid nitrogen for storing cryopreserved samples.
The scope of cell destruction during freezing and thawing due to intracellular ice crystals formation is one of the primary drawbacks of cryopreservation of gametes.
To solve this problem, some steps are taken care of that are as follows:
But osmotic shock develops due to the application of cryoprotectants forces the movement of the water by osmosis and leads to dehydration of the cell that causes a detrimental change in cell volume.
Fluctuation of physical and chemical factors during the egg or sperm freezing process has a potential impact on the DNA structure of the cell.
For instance, alteration of osmotic pressure during the freezing process causes chromosome aberrations or elevations in sister chromatid exchange frequencies in hamster ovary cells and lymphocytes.
Thus, hyperosmotic pressure may cause DNA damage or hinder DNA repair leading to chromosomal aberrations.
Progressive loss of bipolar spindle structure coexisting with chromosome displacement is resultant of leaving oocytes for longer than optimum time.
Egg freezing and/or pre-freezing influences alteration either in DNA structure or egg components implicated in repair mechanisms.
Many research studies found that cryopreservation leads to DNA fragmentation.
However, the same method does not apply for egg quality assessment after cryopreservation. Therefore, it is difficult to state that a clear conclusion.
Some research findings reported that the freezing technique modifies the DNA integrity of human sperm.
Glycerol is a primary cryoprotectant used for commercial purposes.
Ravi Sharma is a self-motivated, successful entrepreneur and has a solid experience in the fertility segment. and he is the director at ARTbaby Global (ARThealthcare). He is a pharmacy graduate with post-graduation in business administration and has 14 years of rich experience in the field of infertility segment. He loves to write about IVF, Surrogacy, and other ART (assisted reproductive technology) news, issues, and updates. He is a Pharmacy graduate (B. Pharm) and M.B.A (marketing).
His most recent success includes the successful launch of the medical tourism company, ARTbaby, which offers treatment options for infertility, egg donation, and surrogacy. He likes spending time with his family and writing about various aspects of IVF surrogacy and donating eggs.