Published:
November 11, 2022
If you can envision a possible pregnancy in your future—but you’re not necessarily ready right now—freezing your eggs might be a great option to consider. Fertility specialists say egg freezing, or oocyte cryopreservation, is becoming a more popular way to take advantage of the fertility of a woman’s younger years.
A woman’s fertility begins to decline as she approaches her mid-30s, and declines more rapidly by the age of 40. Freezing eggs from younger, more fertile years allows women to try and become pregnant by in vitro fertilization (IVF) at a later age (using their younger eggs) when they naturally would not be as fertile.
What Is Egg Freezing?
Egg freezing involves harvesting your eggs, then freezing and storing them until you’re ready to try for a pregnancy. Egg freezing requires the use of fertility medications that help you produce multiple eggs during ovulation for retrieval and subsequent freezing (cryopreservation).
What Is the Purpose of Freezing Your Eggs?
There are a wide variety of reasons a person may choose to freeze their eggs. For instance, a woman might want to delay pregnancy for a number of personal life choices. Other reasons might be medically motivated—for instance, those with a cancer diagnosis, a surgery that may damage the reproductive organs, or a family history of early menopause may choose egg freezing as a way to help them grow their family in the future.
What is the Best Age for Egg Freezing?
According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), the optimal time to freeze your eggs is during your 20s and early 30s. At this age, you have a good ovarian reserve (the number of eggs in your ovaries) and those eggs are at their healthiest. However, every woman’s situations is different. The team at Penn Fertility Care - Lancaster General Health will work with you to determine the ideal egg-freezing plan that fits your health history and reproductive goals.
How Is Egg Freezing Done?
During a normal menstrual cycle without medication, a woman typically releases one egg every month. During an egg freezing cycle, ovarian stimulation is done using injectable hormonal medications that help more than one egg grow.
Your fertility specialist will monitor your eggs and hormone levels with blood work and ultrasound, and determine the best time to retrieve them. Egg retrieval takes place vaginally, typically under sedation. Your provider will use a transvaginal ultrasound to guide a needle with a suction device into a follicle to collect the eggs. After retrieval, the mature eggs are immediately frozen and stored in our lab on-site at Penn Fertility Care - Lancaster General Health.
When you’re ready to attempt to become pregnant, the eggs will be thawed and fertilized with sperm in a laboratory. After fertilization, IVF will be used to implant them in your uterus for a possible pregnancy to occur.
Does Egg Freezing Work?
As with any fertility treatment, freezing your eggs does not guarantee a future pregnancy. However, it is certainly a fantastic option to carefully consider and discuss with your fertility specialist and your support system. Many women are able to conceive and have a healthy baby after freezing their eggs—however success depends on many factors, including at what age you froze your eggs.
Freezing your eggs can be a valuable and life-changing step to take to help you become a parent on your own terms. Schedule a consultation with Penn Fertility Care - Lancaster General Health, and our fertility specialists can help you decide if it’s the right option for you.