Egg Freezing
If you’re not yet ready to have children but are aware of the impacts of age on female fertility, egg freezing may be the solution. Also known as oocyte cryopreservation, egg freezing gives women the option to have children later in life while avoiding the risks of natural age-related fertility decline.
Who should consider egg freezing?
Increasing age has a negative impact on both male and female fertility. For women, age is the single most important determinant of her fertility as the quality and quantity of eggs gradually decrease with age. A woman in her early to mid-20s has a 30% chance of falling pregnant each month; by age 40, this chance reduces to 5%.
Despite a woman being biologically and physiologically at her reproductive peak, life circumstances don’t always necessarily align. You may consider egg freezing if:
- You would like to have children one day when you’re older
- You’re still waiting for the right partner to start a family with
- You would like to have children but have other health concerns that take priority at the moment, such as cancer treatment
- You’re currently unsure about motherhood but would like to have the option in the future
- You would like to focus on other aspects of your life, such as career or travel, before starting a family
How does egg freezing work?
The first step of the egg freezing process is the same as that of an IVF cycle. You will be prescribed stimulating hormone injections for a couple of weeks to increase the number of mature eggs that are released from your ovaries in the month. During this stimulation period, your fertility specialist will monitor you with blood tests and ultrasounds, watching your hormone levels and the state of your ovaries.
Retrieving your eggs is performed under an anaesthetic in a day surgery, and takes about 15 minutes. During this step of the process, your fertility specialist collects the eggs from the ovaries, a procedure known as transvaginal oocyte retrieval.
Once the eggs have been collected, they will be evaluated for quality. Those that are mature are prepared for freezing using liquid nitrogen. So long as optimal conditions are maintained, there seems to be no limit to the length of time frozen eggs can be stored. When you’re ready to grow your family, these eggs are thawed for fertilisation with your partner’s sperm or donor sperm.
You can read more about egg freezing and fertility preservation here.
Embryo freezing
Embryo freezing is another method of preserving future fertility. This process involves fertilising collected eggs with sperm so that it develops into an embryo, which then undergoes cryopreservation. When you are ready for children, this embryo is thawed and can be implanted in your own uterus or that of a surrogate.
It is important to recognise that embryos can’t be un-fertilised – once eggs are fertilised, no other source of sperm can be selected in the future. Thus, freezing eggs offers far more flexibility to women who are uncertain about their reproductive future.
Egg freezing cost in sydney with dr simon nothman
Your egg freezing costs will vary depending on a few factors, such as:
- Your private health insurance coverage
- Which medications you need during the stimulation phase
- Which day surgery and the cost of the anaesthetist and anaesthetic used for the egg collection
- How long you keep your frozen eggs in storage
If you are undergoing egg or embryo cryopreservation for medical reasons, such as needing to prioritise cancer treatment, there may be a Medicare rebate. Medicare does not currently offer a rebate for elective egg freezing or embryo banking.
Dr Simon Nothman provides expert guidance for women and couples considering their options for preserving their future childbearing potential. As an experienced fertility specialist, he understands that the decision to freeze eggs is significant, and always offers unbiased expert advice combined with support and compassion.
Is egg freezing safe and effective?
The process associated with oocyte preservation is not considered high-risk. There is a low chance of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome from the hormone injections, but the most common side effects are bloating, mood fluctuations, and minor discomfort.
The success rates of achieving a healthy birth from a frozen egg is most heavily influenced by your age at the time the eggs were frozen. The more eggs that are collected for freezing can improve your chances of creating a viable embryo, but this number can be affected by your age, overall health, and ovarian reserve.
Scientific studies have looked at the question of successful birth after egg freezing, and while results differ somewhat, it is clear that egg freezing is far more successful when performed at younger ages. As an example, one study found that women aged between 30-34 years old with ten eggs collected have around a 60-69% chance of at least one live birth, while women 36 years or older with ten eggs collected have around a 30% chance of a live birth.1 Calculators can assist in estimating the chances of live birth based on age and numbers of egg frozen, but at the end of the day it must be remembered that these are population statistics, and don’t take into account the numerous variables involved in successful fertilisation, implantation, pregnancy and birth – thus they can’t truly give an answer to the question of how successful the process will be for any given patient.
It should be noted that egg freezing is not a fail-safe procedure for guaranteeing future children, but can provide you with the option of preserving the current quality of your eggs whilst you are considering your future family.
References
- Goldman et al, 2017
ON AVERAGE:
of eggs will survive the
thawing process
of thawed eggs will be
successfully fertilised
of fertilised will develop to the embryo stage, though this is dependent on the age of the eggs and how healthy they are
It should be noted that egg freezing is not a fail-safe procedure for guaranteeing future children.