How to Decide When to Freeze Your Eggs

There are so many very valid reasons why people choose egg freezing. Maybe you’re focused on making partner at your law firm in the next few years. Maybe world travels are keeping you booked and busy and it doesn’t feel like the right timing to start having children, or you’re holding off on becoming a parent while you wait for the right partner to team up with to build a family Maybe you’re not sure right now when or if you want to be a parent. No matter your reason, if you’re waiting a while to consider kids, you’re far from alone. In fact, more and more people in their twenties and thirties are delaying parenthood: 65% of women ages 25 to 29 are currently childless, along with 40% of women ages 30 to 34, for a variety of reasons, including financial stress related to childcare and relationship uncertainty.  

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It’s impossible to nail down the perfect timing of when is best for you have a baby, but one option that is there to give you more time is to put your decision on ice. You may have already thrown out the question “Should I freeze my eggs?” in your group chat of close friends, but are looking for more specialized answers about what that might look like. That’s why we’re here to guide you.  

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So how do you know if egg freezing is the right choice for you, and more importantly, when to freeze your eggs?

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In general, what is the egg freezing process?

Egg freezing, also known as cryopreservation, is a way to preserve your fertility by extracting and storing your eggs for future use. You can think of egg freezing like a form of insurance for your fertility: you freeze eggs ideally at an age when their quantity and quality are high so that if, in the future when you decide to build your family, you have challenges getting pregnant naturally then you can use your previously frozen eggs.

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The process works similarly to the beginning stages of in vitro fertilization (IVF):

• For about 10 to 12 days, you inject hormonal medications that yield as much egg development as possible and safe.
• During this development period, your fertility clinic will check in on the progress of the egg development with pelvic ultrasounds and bloodwork.
• The next step is the egg retrieval: You’ll undergo a procedure under anesthesia to extract all of the eggs that have developed in the ovaries.
• The eggs are examined in an embryology lab for maturity (their ability to be fertilized in the future) and then put under a deep freeze in liquid nitrogen tanks.

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What is the right egg freezing age?

It’s not a secret that your eggs don’t stick around forever. The average person with ovaries is born with about one million eggs and that number steadily declines over time - most people only have about 1,000 eggs left by the time menopause rolls around (and only a small fraction of them are going to ovulate and be able to be fertilized). “Egg quality and quantity are highest in someone's early reproductive years,” explains Dr. Arian Khorshid, MD, a Reproductive Endocrinologist at HRC Fertility in the San Francisco Bay Area and one of Sunfish’s medical advisors. Your peak fertility is primarily in your twenties, but egg quantity and quality are also likely to be high in your early to mid-thirties. However, more and more people ages 36 to 44 are increasingly having successful pregnancies as well, so know that this doesn’t mean pregnancy at that age is not possible. Every person is different when it comes to egg count and quality, and since we typically only ovulate one egg per month, if you’re ovulating monthly and your tubes are open, pregnancy is often possible.

The exact timeline of how egg quality and quantity decline is individual to each person, but Dr. Khorshid generally recommends that sooner is better for egg freezing. If you are unsure about egg freezing, at least schedule an initial consultation with a fertility specialist to understand your options. As soon as you know you would like to freeze your eggs, have the coverage from your employer, or have the timing lined up, it benefits you to get started with the process. That way, you have more eggs stored that have a higher chance of being fertilized in the future, which gives you better odds at having a successful pregnancy and birth when you’re ready to build your family.

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There are many medical conditions that could negatively affect egg quality and quantity. If a medical provider has told you that you have such a condition or that you are at risk for early menopause, which is defined as no longer having menstrual periods before the age of 4, you may want to bump up your egg freezing timeline as close as possible to your peak fertility period, suggests Dr. Khorshid. Similarly, if your life or career plans involve having children after age 35, freezing your eggs sooner could give you higher odds of having more eggs with a higher probability of becoming genetically normal embryos.

Choosing the best fertility preservation timing

If you are seriously considering freezing your eggs in order to preserve your fertility a bit longer, one of your first concerns, beyond biological, will probably be financial.  Where you are in your career, relationships, and more is a huge factor in your decision—and the egg freezing process can be overwhelming physically, financially, and emotionally. Sunfish has all the resources to make this process as minimally stressful as possible, from understanding your fertility and financial options, to linking you with the financial support you need, and planning ahead for your future family.  

Some financial factors to consider include egg freezing cost: depending on where you live, it can cost over $15k per cycle, between the medications, testing, and retrieval procedures. Storing your frozen eggs may additionally cost about $600-$1200 per year.

This is all done on a per cycle basis: For each egg retrieval cycle, the optimum number of eggs to yield is between 10 and 20. Studies show that preserving at least 9 eggs before age 35 can result in about a 70% chance of a live birth after the eggs are fertilized.

Egg freezing in your later 30s may be different than in your twenties, for instance. Especially if you are considering IVF in order to fertilize and implant the eggs that will later become embryos, you may need more time to plan ahead. Even if you are under 35, it may take up to two IVF cycles of fertilization and implantation to result in a successful pregnancy and birth. By age 37, that number tends to double to four IVF cycles per pregnancy.

Of course, it can take time to establish yourself in your career and get to a place where you can save up for fertility preservation. And then, there is the hurdle of coverage by your employer’s medical plan. One survey found that 19% of large employers provided egg freezing benefits to employees. For those who aren’t in that situation, paying out of pocket for fertility care can be taxing, both financially and emotionally. (Our resources help you navigate not only the endless clinical paperwork, but the financial support that might be necessary to invest in your future family, and the regular check-ins to get you through the road to fertility preservation.)

Everyone’s body, eggs, and personal and financial situation are different, so don’t sweat it if you feel like your fertility journey doesn’t look like others around you. It is important to  make your own best decision about when to freeze your eggs, if that turns out to be the right choice for you. Sunfish is always by your side if you choose to put parenthood on freeze mode, while preserving your options for the future.

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Click here to learn more about Sunfish’s Egg Freezing Success Program