By Emily Cones-Browne
Egg freezing has dramatically increased in popularity over the last decade or so – especially during the pandemic, which prompted a dramatic rise in women freezing their eggs. But as reported by the BBC, fertility preservation is more than just a Covid craze.
At AWNY, we’ve increased our awareness on the topic through our member, Kathy Potts, who has made impressive strides in NYC as a post-doctoral researcher in the women’s reproductive health industry. Kathy works at Gameto, a women’s health biotech startup—run by female scientists and entrepreneurs—that is focused on improving women’s health. Gameto is working to improve egg-freezing and IVF technologies, and they’re looking for women to take part in their egg-freezing study.
In 2022, TechCrunch interviewed Gameto CEO and bioinformatics researcher, Dr. Dina Radenkovic about the very big hole in the reproductive industry – i.e., the lack of a broad, leading women’s healthcare brand. “Radenkovic’s thinking: women are living longer; their ovaries could and should be functioning longer, too,” notes the article.
Historically, women’s health has been a neglected area in medicine; most conditions have few treatment options, and those available often cause frequent complications and offer minimal benefit. While it has increased dramatically in popularity, egg freezing continues to be onerous, cost-prohibitive, and just a generally daunting process to undertake. Gameto’s abovementioned Fertilo program is working to make IVF and egg freezing shorter, safer, and more effective for women (read more about the technology and approach here!).
For those in New York City seeking financially friendly egg-freezing—or if you’re interested in helping advance women’s health practices—Gameto is providing an opportunity to receive egg-freezing at no cost, as part of their research.
Available to women from the ages of 25-35, the egg-freezing study patients will undergo a shortened cycle of 0 – 3 days of stimulation, from which eggs will be donated to Gameto for the study and tested with Fertilo. Later, when convenient, the patient can undergo a standard-of-care egg-freezing cycle as payment for participating. All viable eggs from this cycle will be theirs to freeze for future use (with future egg storage being the only cost of the exercise).
If you’re keen to learn more about Gameto’s egg-freezing study and register your interest in Fertilo, follow this link.
AWNY | Australian Women in New York 