Empowering Women With the Science of Egg Freezing
By Dr. Aimee Browne, Reproductive Endocrinologist at Aspire Fertility San Antonio
As more women seek to preserve their fertility for future family planning, egg freezing has grown in popularity. And it couldn’t come at a better time, as societal norms have shifted and more women are delaying parenthood for justifiable reasons, like career, relationships, and financial stability. Fortunately, advancements in reproductive medicine, like fertility preservation, are providing women with more options to have a baby on their clock and not Mother Nature’s.
Egg freezing is one form of fertility preservation that has proven to be a viable option, where a woman’s eggs are retrieved and frozen to be used later. My colleagues at NYU Langone Fertility Center released the first-of-its-kind,15-year longitudinal study on egg freezing, and data from that study found that over 74% of eggs survived the freezing process, and nearly 70% of those surviving eggs were successfully fertilized.
Arming yourself with as much information about egg freezing is pertinent to understanding if it is the right course of action to help you safeguard your fertility.
Who Does Egg Freezing Benefit
A woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have. As she ages, the number and quality of eggs decline, with a significant decrease in fertility by age 35. Not only does the number of eggs diminish, but the quality of those eggs also declines, making it harder to conceive. The late 20s to early 30s are considered the ideal age range for egg freezing because women have a higher ovarian reserve (a strong number of eggs) and higher egg quality, which is why many doctors recommend egg freezing by age 35.
But the great news is that if you are over 35 and considering freezing your eggs, you still have a high chance of achieving pregnancy later on. NYU Langone Fertility Center’s follow-up study on egg freezing found that 70% of women who froze eggs when they were younger than 38 – and thawed at least 20 eggs at a later date – had a baby.
The other benefit of egg freezing is that it preserves the age of the oocyte, or egg. For example, if a woman freezes her eggs at 32, and uses them at 42, she will have the same chances of becoming pregnant as she did at 32.
How Egg Freezing Works
In a standard monthly cycle, a woman will generally ovulate one egg. In egg freezing, a patient is given medications to stimulate the ovaries to mature multiple eggs at once.
Throughout the stimulation phase, patients are closely monitored through ultrasounds and blood work.
Once the eggs are ready to be retrieved, or harvested, a fertility specialist will remove the eggs while the patient is under mild sedation. It’s a fairly quick procedure – generally no more than 30 minutes – and patients usually experience very mild discomfort for a day or two following.
After eggs are retrieved, they are transferred to the embryology laboratory, where they are evaluated and determined to be mature enough to be frozen for later use through cryopreservation technology.
It’s important to speak with a reproductive endocrinology and infertility (REI) specialist to understand all your options, undergo a full reproductive health evaluation, and understand the costs associated with egg freezing. This insight will help you determine if egg freezing is the best path for your future family building.
To learn more about egg freezing or to set up a consultation with one of our doctors at Aspire Fertility San Antonio, please visit aspirefertility.com/san-antonio-texas
