For her 25th birthday this year, Shania Bhopa gave a gift to her future self.
The PhD student from Hamilton decided to freeze her eggs as an “insurance policy” to have a baby in the future as she focuses on her career right now.
Bhopa’s goal is to have her first child a decade from now, around the age of 35.
“A weight’s been lifted off my shoulder,” said Bhopa, who underwent the egg-freezing procedure at Markham Fertility Centre last month.
“I’ve always wanted to be a mum, and I think that’s one of my purposes in life and … I know that’s not my timing right now,” she told Global News in an interview.
@wellbyshaniaDay 1 egg freezing: my boyfriend on facetime for moral support was MUCH needed – its more a mental barrier than anything else in terms of the actual medication & process. Comment below to start opening up the conversation on fertility & womanhood! #eggfreezing Egg freezing journey Egg freezing Freezing eggs Womanhood Female fertility Fertility journey Day 1 of egg freezing
And in 2021, close to one-quarter (24 per cent) of Canadians aged 15 to 49 changed their fertility plans because of the pandemic, according to Statistics Canada.
Canada is already considered a “late” childbearing nation and its fertility rate, which is an estimate of the average number of live births a female can be expected to have in her lifetime, has dipped over the last decade.
“We have been seeing really since the pandemic started, an increase in the number of women or people with ovaries who are accessing fertility preservation in order to secure their future fertility,” said Carolynn Dubé, executive director with Fertility Matters Canada.
Dubé said this helps alleviate the pressure of a “ticking clock” for women who want to put off starting a family to focus on their professional life.
“It gives them a greater chance to bring home a baby because their eggs have been frozen … at a younger age,” she said.
Several years ago, big tech companies like Google, Apple and Facebook began paying for female employees to freeze their eggs as a way to attract more young women to their staff.
It’s a growing trend with some companies in Canada now also offering the freezing of eggs or sperm, as part of an expanded suite of fertility and family planning benefits.
Dubé said there is now a great awareness with more women openly having conservations online about their family planning options.
“We’re seeing more and more people through social media sharing, and I feel that this younger generation of women especially are really actively seeking information about their health, their reproductive health.”
What is egg freezing?
Women’s fertility starts to decline after the age of 30 and more significantly when they cross 35.
That is why egg freezing is a route many take, but it comes with a heavy price – roughly $10,000 or more in Canada for as many eggs as can be retrieved. This includes costs for the medication and procedure and an annual storage fee.
The egg-freezing procedure is similar to the IVF treatment in that the eggs are removed from a woman’s body.
After screening, medication is given to stimulate the ovaries so they produce eggs – a process that can take up to two weeks, said Dr. Togas Tulandi, professor and chair of obstetrics and gynecology at McGill University in Montreal.
After stimulation, an ultrasound-guided procedure takes the eggs out for freezing and storing.
Tulandi said the best age to preserve eggs is in the 20s and early 30s.
The longer you postpone, the less worthwhile it becomes.
“We have requests of patients who want to … preserve the eggs at a later age, but the problem is not just the number of eggs, but the quality of egg is decreased when you are close to 40 or even after 40 especially,” he said.
Egg freezing is also an “amazing medical option” for young cancer patients who need to undergo treatment that could affect future fertility, Dubé adds.
Are there any risks?
For Bhopa, who documented her 11-day egg-freezing journey on social media, the whole process was a “roller-coaster” ride, she says.
The daily medication injections made her body “really sore” and she said her ovaries felt like “going from limes to grapefruits” in size in her mid-section.
“It’s such a strange sensation,” Bhopa said.
@wellbyshaniaReplying to @sara am i too young to be freezing my eggs?whats the prime age range? Lets see what Dr. Garcia has to say #eggfreezingjourney#eggfreezing Egg freezing Egg freezing journey Freezing my eggs Doctor interview Fertility Womenshealth Womens health
While egg freezing is considered a safe and effective process, some women may experience mild symptoms like bloating and headaches, said Dubé.
The procedure can also result in ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, when the ovaries become enlarged and cysts are formed due to the medication, said Tulandi.
But this gets better over time and no surgery is needed, he added.
Symptoms of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome include fatigue, nausea, headaches, abdominal pain, breast tenderness and irritability, according to an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
There is no expiry date for the frozen eggs, which remain at the same age they were originally stored, but many patients don’t come back to use them.
Shania Bhopa said her egg-freezing process took 11 days that felt like a ‘roller-coaster.’.
Photo supplied
Bhopa says when the time comes, she will try having a baby naturally for a couple of months before she goes back to the clinic to use her frozen eggs.
“Knowing that my likelihood, especially with my career goals, (that) I can have a happy, healthy baby potentially closer to 35, so that is very refreshing.”
MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.
Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.
A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.
Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.
Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.
The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.
Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.
“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.
“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”
McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.
“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”
Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.
Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.
“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”
Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.
Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.
“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”
The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.
Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.
Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.
“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.
The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”
Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.
That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.
New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.
The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.
The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.
“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”
Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.
So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?
“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.
“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”
