I am often asked about the best time for a woman to freeze her own eggs. I love this question because I strongly advocate and support women getting informed about egg freezing, taking charge of their fertility and then acting upon this knowledge. In my opinion, the sooner they freeze their eggs, the better their chances of successfully using them if they need assisted reproductive assistance in the future.
Most women come to a fertility clinic around age 35 or later to freeze their eggs. We applaud this wonderful step in the right direction and feel it is an absolutely worthwhile one that will help them meet their future family building goals. However, we will be able to retrieve more and healthier eggs from younger women.
Why not donate to yourself?
Typically, women who decide to use an egg donor are past age 40 and they choose women to donate who are under 30 years of age. Why? Because these younger women have the highest quantity and best quality eggs; ultimately this leads to the highest pregnancy rates.
Freezing your eggs is like being your own egg donor. If and when you are ready to conceive, and you are not successful on your own, you will have more options.
Science has finally taken us to place where egg freezing exists as a viable and successful option for childbearing. That was not always the case. In comparison, sperm freezing has been around for decades. Only in the last 10 years have doctors been able to freeze eggs in a way that will maintain pregnancy rates at or near the rate the women is when she freezes her eggs, no matter how much older her body gets.
Benefits of freezing your eggs when you are younger
Some of the other benefits of freezing your eggs at an earlier age is that a woman under 30 will need fewer eggs to achieve a live birth than a woman in her mid to late 30’s or older. You also will need fewer cycles to retrieve the ideal number of eggs, reducing the overall cost.
Many companies are now offering their employees fertility benefits, including for egg freezing, which should help young professional women afford and access this technology.
It is wonderful today that women have the opportunities and choices to make difficult life decisions. Whatever the reason women choose to delay family planning, the body is on a different schedule. We need our eggs to procreate, and they are valuable. Egg freezing is a way to take advantage of an opportunity to preserve your youth so that when the time comes, you will be well prepared.
Advocate for your fertility future
Knowledge and awareness are powerful tools. If you are a millennial woman exploring egg freezing, we encourage you to get the information you need to make an educated decision about your best time to pursue this procedure. Egg freezing isn’t right for everyone and you will have a unique reason to freeze or not freeze your eggs.
Speaking to a trained professional like a reproductive endocrinologist can help you sort out if you are a good candidate and if the treatment is right for you! HRC Fertility has been at the forefront of medicine in developing new techniques to freeze unfertilized eggs, and we can answer your questions about this technology so the timing for this important step is right for you.