Thinking About Freezing Your Eggs? Experts Share What You Need to Know

For women who want to delay having children or just keep their fertility options open, egg freezing can help. While the procedure doesn’t guarantee your ability to conceive one day, it does allow you to preserve your current egg quality and count, making it an increasingly popular option for women.

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Even though the process may seem straightforward, knowing where and how to begin the conversation with your doctor can be difficult. At SHE Media’s Co-Lab at this year’s South by Southwest in a panel titled, “Fertility Unfiltered” three reproductive health experts sat down with editor-in-chief of Flow Space, Galina Espinoza, to discuss what to know about egg freezing if you’re considering it as an option in your fertility journey. Here are the highlights from their conversation.

How does egg freezing work?

The process of egg freezing involves harvesting a woman’s eggs by guiding a needle through the vaginal wall and into the ovaries to suction the eggs from their follicles and into sterile test tubes. The test tubes are then placed into a freezer at sub-zero temperatures and removed when a woman wants to attempt pregnancy at a later time through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

An average egg-freezing cycle can range from 10 to 14 days, and during this time you’ll visit your doctor almost daily to make sure your eggs are maturing correctly. You’ll also be giving yourself hormone injections that will help the follicles and eggs grow.

“We as women, we are born with all the eggs we will ever have in our lifetime,” says Reem Sabouni , MD, Director of Infertility and Oocyte Cryopreservation at the Houston Fertility Institute. “It’s kind of depressing to think about and we slowly lose our eggs over time. So for us in comparison to our male counterparts, it’s a use it or lose it system.”

Because of that, time is of the essence when it comes to harvesting your eggs. Fertility begins to decrease around the age of 30, so experts recommend freezing your eggs in your late twenties for best egg quality.

On average, women under 35 who have no health complications can have up to 20 eggs retrieved in one process. Women over 35 without any health complications can have around 15. The number varies greatly depending on each woman.

The procedure can cost thousands of dollars, making it a privilege for those who can afford it or have fertility insurance coverage.

How to approach the conversation with your provider.

Beginning the process of freezing your eggs is one that should begin with education, said S. Kemi Nurudeen , MD, Director of Fertility Preservation at the Houston Fertility Institute. She said the first step is deciding what you want your future family to look like. Will it include a partner or do you know you want to start a family after a certain age? Those questions are important to have answers to.

“I always talk to patients and I say if you decide not to egg freeze, will you have any regrets,” says Dr. Nurudeen. “Are you open to the other options that are available to you, which could be adoption. It could be IVF. It could be embryo donation as well or even donor eggs. So there are other options you can consider in the future if egg freezing is not right for you.”

Another factor to consider is the clinic you choose. “If you decide that you’re going to do egg freezing, your clinic will actually go through their own specific success rates and basically make recommendations on what they think your numbers should look like at this age, and what your goal should be at this age,” says Dr. Nurudeen.

This should help you determine if or when you’ll be able to reach your fertility goals.

And panelist, Rachel Rhee, executive coach and podcast host brought her own expertise to the panel, as she knows the decision of egg freezing is a personal one, because she too went through the process. After getting diagnosed with stage two kidney cancer she said there were a lot of thoughts about when she would start a family and what her future would look like.

“It was because of that cancer diagnosis I really decided to say, you know, now’s the time,” says Rhee. “The sense of urgency is really there for me and that sense of perspective is there for me. So that’s why I decided to really just bite the bullet and decide to go through the process.”

She said the process was incredibly emotional and both her body and mind were affected. She said implementing mindfulness, self compassion, rest, and showing herself grace through the whole process really helped.

“I would say if anyone is going through that process, really give yourself a chance to slow down and pause and also be really open with the people that are around you in your life,” says Rhee.

How to decide if egg freezing is right for you.

When it comes to knowing how to approach or even begin the process of egg freezing, experts agree finding a doctor that listens and understands your specific situation is vital. This includes doing your research and speaking with multiple clinics until you find the right fit.

In addition to this, Dr. Nurudeen said being proactive is also key. “Get your education about your health, your reproductive health, and don’t let fear hold you back,” says Dr. Nurudeen. “You’ll find a doctor who will fit with you and take away that fear and at least educate yourself so you have no regrets in the future.”

And even if you find that egg freezing is not right for you, Rhee says there’s still some elements that you can do to incorporate more ownership into your health.

“Even going to the doctor getting a hormone panel test done just to see what your body’s state is at the current state even if you’re not even considering it just to understand your body a little bit more and have those data points so that you can maybe even make choices once you learn that baseline information.”

But most importantly, remember that you’re not alone in this process. There are women everywhere who struggle with knowing when to start a family or what they want their family to look like. In many ways women electing to start their own family later in life is empowering, says Dr. Sabouni, and remembering that making this decision is one that doesn’t have to be filled with fear, but can be filled with joy.

“More women are valedictorians, more women are graduating college, more women are graduating from graduate degree programs in comparison to our male counterparts,” said Dr. Sabouni. “So we are likely delaying childbearing. And so the most important thing is that they don’t it doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive. You can have it all. It might not just be the way you envisioned it, but be proactive and be courageous.”

Watch their full conversation: