Who should consider egg freezing?
Ovarian reserve declines with age, both in terms of quantity and egg quality, which affects their ability to result in pregnancy. The time to consider egg freezing is generally during your younger reproductive years, ideally in your 20s, but can also be done during your 30s.
Individuals who may wish to consider freezing their eggs include the following:
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Those who want to delay having children until a later age for any number of nonmedical reasons that can include being free to focus on career or school, desiring to be a mother later in life, and having not yet found a mate they want to have children with.
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Those facing cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy that can cause infertility. Preserving eggs for this reason is known as oncofertility.
Women who are about to have gynecologic surgery that may render them infertile.
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Those with conditions that can harm fertility, such as sickle cell anemia and autoimmune disease.
Women with a family history of premature menopause or who have diminished ovarian reserve, which means few eggs and eggs of poor quality.
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Transgender men who wish to preserve their eggs for any reason, including before undergoing gender-affirming procedures that impact fertility.
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Women or couples who are undergoing IVF but do not wish to freeze embryos for religious or personal reasons.
Good Candidates for Egg Freezing
While egg freezing can be a good option for many, it is not recommended in all cases. We consider good candidates for egg freezing to be:
- Individuals in a lower age bracket, ideally 20 to roughly 37.
- Those with good evaluation of ovarian reserve as indicated by an antral follicle count (i.e., the number of fluid-filled follicles in the ovaries containing immature eggs), as well as proper levels of follicle-stimulating hormone and the anti-Müllerian hormone.
The Egg Freezing Process
As with IVF, the egg freezing process begins by using medications to induce ovulation of multiple eggs. Normally, one egg is ovulated per menstrual cycle, but with egg freezing, we want to retrieve multiple eggs at once, which involves controlled ovarian stimulation. To achieve this, the patient takes injectable hormones for about 12 days before ovulation. When the eggs have reached the desired level of maturation, the patient is given what’s known as a trigger shot, and egg retrieval is scheduled for 36 hours later.
During egg retrieval, the patient is placed under conscious sedation, while our fertility specialist inserts a long needle through the vagina directed through ultrasound imaging. The physician uses this instrument to pierce the follicle and suction out a mature egg. Our embryologist evaluates the eggs, retaining those eggs that meet our quality criteria. Afterwards, the patien spends a short time recovering in our clinic and will generally go home in about an hour.
These eggs are frozen by vitrification. The embryologist records the specifics of the process, including particulars on the solution used, as this information is needed to properly thaw the frozen eggs later. The eggs are stored in our cryopreservation system, which utilizes liquid nitrogen storage in a tank system that is rigorously monitored. Eggs can be stored indefinitely, as the freezing process suspends their biological activity.
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Egg freezing cost
Because the egg freezing process includes many of the steps used in IVF, it involves considerable cost. These include the cost of medication, office visits, monitoring, and the egg retrieval process. Then the eggs need to be stored until it is time for the woman or couple to attempt pregnancy. This involves a monthly or annual fee that covers the use of advanced equipment and professional monitoring of the cryopreservation system. We have financing programs that may help patients more easily afford egg freezing.
Considerations and Risks of Egg Freezing
The primary factor to be aware of regarding egg freezing is that it does not guarantee a pregnancy later. This is a procedure growing in popularity and has generated a considerable amount of marketing. Often, egg freezing is positioned as an insurance policy against age-related infertility, but this is not the case, medically speaking.
We counsel each patient on the prospects for individual success with egg freezing and discuss all factors of it, including addressing any risks of the procedure. The main risk to be aware of is ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which is swelling of the ovaries and associated pain due to the stimulation medications used. This usually resolves on its own after a few days, though medical treatment is sometimes in order. As with any invasive medical procedure, the retrieval process may also result in infection, pain, and damage to nearby tissue or organs.
The eggs themselves are rarely damaged during the process, and studies show that using frozen eggs does not result in any effects on the future child.
