Women who have yet to meet Mr Right will be able to store their eggs at home as a powder, scientists believe.
The freeze-dried eggs could be kept at room temperature, making home storage a cheaper option than paying for eggs to be kept on ice at a fertility clinic.
Should the woman want to start a family, she would simply add water, before undergoing IVF, this week’s New Scientist reports.
Women who want to have babies later in life could have their eggs dried into a powder, reports the New Scientist
Israeli scientist Amir Arav said: ‘You keep the powder at room temperature for ever - and just add water to bring it back to life.’
Egg freezing is already available to those who aren’t ready to start a family and several hundred British women have their eggs on ice.
It was introduced to give cancer patients who face the risk of being left infertile by their treatment, the possibility of still having children later in life.
But it is also popular with women who want to advance in their career before becoming mothers or who are waiting to meet Mr Right.
Putting eggs on ice costs around £3,500, plus an annual storage fee of £100 to £150.
Dr Arav, whose firm Core Dynamics, bills itself as ‘bringing science fiction to life’, envisions beginning by rapidly freezing the eggs until they turn into a glass-like state.
The eggs would then be freeze-dried to turn them into a powder.
Kept at home in a dark, air-tight container, the egg powder would save a woman the cost of storage at a fertility clinic.
So far, he has successfully powdered and rehydrated cells from human umbilical cords.
He has also turned cows’ eggs into a powder, with 23 of the 30 eggs freeze-dried surviving the process.
Some experts question why women would want to abandon the tried and tested route of egg freezing for one that would save them as little as £100 a year
New Scientist says: ‘In future, women who want to safeguard their fertility may be able to store their eggs at home as powder.
‘To revive them for an attempt at having a baby, all they would need to do is empty the sachet, add water, fertilise with sperm and implant the embryo.’
However, experts question why women would want to abandon the tried and tested route of egg freezing for one that would save them as little as £100 a year.
They also query whether women would feel comfortable having their eggs in their kitchen cupboard or in their bedroom cabinet and point out that Dr Arav needs to prove that powdered eggs can be used to produce healthy babies.
Professor Claus Andersen, of the University Hospital of Copenhagen in Denmark, said: ‘If the vision is for women to take their freeze-dried eggs home with them, will those eggs deteriorate over time or lose their reproductive potential?
‘The freeze-drying needs to be shown to be as good as the conventional method of freezing under liquid nitrogen and this could take some time.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2303775/Just-add-water-Women-eggs-dried-powder-ahead-IVF-treatment.html#ixzz2PXYSU6Qo
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