Protect your fertility with egg freezing

For many women, the question is not IF they want to have a child, but WHEN. However, completing higher-level education, demanding work schedules, or complicating life circumstances can delay childbearing. Even though we want to wait for the right time for pregnancy, our eggs continue to age, which means infertility can become an issue, as well as struggling to achieve the family size you planned for. There is good news though! With egg freezing, you can protect your opportunities to try for pregnancy when the time is right. Our San Antonio fertility center offers hope for patients planning fertility preservation, so you can have a baby on your own timeline.

A look at female fertility

A woman’s fertility relates to the number of eggs left in her ovaries. Approximately 20 weeks before birth, the average female baby has 15 million to 20 million eggs in her ovaries. At birth, that number decreases significantly, to 6 million to 7 million. By the time the average girl enters puberty, she only has 300,000 to 500,000 eggs left, and at age 40, her remaining egg number is only around 10,000.

With age, both the number of eggs available to grow, and the quality of eggs remaining, decline. This reduces a woman’s ability to conceive, and increases the risk of miscarriage.

Egg freezing stops the clock

During the process of egg freezing for fertility preservation, our fertility specialists develop protocols used for stimulating the ovary and then retrieving eggs directly from the ovary. The laboratory at our San Antonio fertility center then preserves the eggs. While they are frozen, they maintain their quality. This way, a woman can use them to conceive later, with the same chances of pregnancy as she had at the time she froze the eggs – not the age at which she uses them. Cool science!

When you are ready to start your family, our skilled embryology team will thaw the eggs and expose them with sperm to create embryos. Once the embryos have grown sufficiently and the uterus is prepared, our fertility specialists will transfer an embryo to the uterus, where it can implant and create a pregnancy.

Pregnancy rates using frozen eggs are related to the age at which you freeze your eggs, not the age at which you use them. For example, if you freeze your eggs at 32 years of age and you don’t use those eggs until you are 40, your chance for pregnancy, miscarriage or genetic defects is that of a 32-year-old.

Frozen eggs can also be used for other pregnancies down the road. A woman who freezes her eggs in her 20s or early 30s may not struggle to conceive in her mid-30s for her first child, but if she is hoping for children in her late 30s and 40s, those frozen eggs can be called in “off the bench” into the game, and help achieve her family building goals long-term.

Explore fertility preservation now

Egg freezing is amazing treatment that can give you the ability to prepare for having a family when you are truly ready – on YOUR schedule. Our skilled team has been freezing eggs for several years, even for commercial egg banks. Trust your future fertility to the experts. For more information about egg freezing, please call for an appointment with our fertility specialists.