Knowledge is power, so our team helps women learn when to freeze eggs
If it seems like more women are preserving their fertility with egg freezing, you’re right. This fertility breakthrough allows women to essentially pause their biological clock. By cryopreserving their eggs at a younger age, women are often able to have a baby later in life, at a time they feel ready for motherhood. If this sounds perfect for you, you might be wondering when to freeze eggs. Erika Munch MD of Texas Fertility Center San Antonio is here to help.
As a San Antonio egg freezing specialist, Dr. Munch routinely helps her patients learn about the best time to freeze eggs. The answer is based on a combination of female fertility basics and each patient’s personal fertility timeline.
Why does age matter in the discussion about when to freeze eggs?
If you ask fertility doctors about the best age to freeze eggs, they will typically say that time is of the essence. Why is that? It all comes back to the nature of female fertility.
You are born with all the eggs you will ever have. Unlike a man’s testes that constantly make new sperm, your ovaries do not produce more eggs. This means you have fewer eggs as you get older. Additionally, the remaining oocytes are more prone to chromosomal defects that can cause miscarriages and birth defects.
For most women, an age-related decline in fertility doesn’t start to become a problem until the mid-30s. That means that your 20s to early-30s are typically the best time to freeze eggs.
However, each woman is different. Some women experience a decline in fertility at a younger age, while it happens later for others. Our San Antonio egg freezing specialist will order fertility testing to determine where you are on your reproductive timeline.
What is the likelihood of conceiving using cryopreserved eggs?
No discussion about when to freeze eggs would be complete without talking about the success rates. Cryopreserving your eggs keeps them in a state of suspended animation, so they do not age. When it’s time to attempt pregnancy using them in an IVF cycle, embryologists will thaw the eggs. At this point, the eggs are the same age and quality that they were when they were vitrified. This is important because egg quality plays a big role in the success of IVF.
Let’s say you undergo the fertility preservation process at the age of 28. At age 40, you decide you are ready to be a mother. After embryologists thaw your eggs, they will be like those of a 28-year-old woman, not a 40-year-old woman. As a result, your likelihood of conceiving is much higher.
Our San Antonio egg freezing specialist can help you understand IVF success rates for the age at which you underwent this process, so that you can know what to expect later, at the point you try to conceive.
At Texas Fertility Center, we can explore egg freezing as a way to take control of your fertility. Our team will help you learn more about important topics like the best time to freeze eggs, so that you have the best chance of having a baby at a time you’re ready. Contact us to schedule an appointment and learn more about cryopreserving your eggs.