freezing your eggs, tell me more

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who did this in her late 30s, but has not been successful with IVF using the thawed eggs now in her early 40s.

I had heard of situations like this. You really dont know the quality of the eggs until you make embryos. I did two rounds of egg freezing and made embryos with donor sperm with 1/2 of them. This gives me more info and if the eggs dont work with a future partner's sperm, then I have some embryos.

This.

Even though egg freezing technology has advanced you really don’t know about the quality of the eggs until you make embryos. With a normal uterus 3 PGS tested euploid embryos gives one a 95% chance of successful live birth. With eggs you just don’t know…

I ended up using ten 22y.o frozen donor eggs and got one euploid embryo. Fortunately I was on the successful side of the ~50% success rate. The number of euploid embryos was low for her age. You just can’t know.

Just out of curiosity, how much cost-wise does using an egg donor add to the process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who did this in her late 30s, but has not been successful with IVF using the thawed eggs now in her early 40s.

Yes this. Thawing embryos is MUCH more successful, and that is not guaranteed. Freezing and thawing eggs is incredibly tricky. I think it works much better with very young eggs, like if you froze your eggs at 19. But of course no one does that, because at 19 you think you'll definitely meet someone in the next 15 years.

I'm just wary of doctor's who tout that this is a great idea. It's a bit of insurance, but it is not a guarantee. I think understanding that going in is important, because it's not cheap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who did this in her late 30s, but has not been successful with IVF using the thawed eggs now in her early 40s.

Yes this. Thawing embryos is MUCH more successful, and that is not guaranteed. Freezing and thawing eggs is incredibly tricky. I think it works much better with very young eggs, like if you froze your eggs at 19. But of course no one does that, because at 19 you think you'll definitely meet someone in the next 15 years.

I'm just wary of doctor's who tout that this is a great idea. It's a bit of insurance, but it is not a guarantee. I think understanding that going in is important, because it's not cheap.

Yes, its an insurance, not a guarantee. But I would definitely recommend doing it, I don't see it as being any different from saying "Most women can have kids, but its not a guarantee that everyone can". There are multiple reasons why you may not be able to have kids, don't add "don't have any eggs" to that list. My advice is, if you can afford it physically, mentally, and financially do it. Give it your all, but don't rely solely on it. Also, a Reproductive Endocrinologist is preferable over an Ob/Gyn with 'fertility expertise'. Also ask the clinic what their thaw rate is, at or above 95% is preferable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i’m nearing mid 30s, no steady relationship and starting to think through freezing my eggs.

anyone that BTDT help my understand the process, and costs?

OP, something to keep in mind is that, although egg freezing might arrest the DNA breakdown with egg age, what has been learned in the world of Artificial Insemination is that the ability of an embryo to implant also declines with age and reasons are multi-factoral.

You should ask direct questions at your clinic about this such as, " what percentage of women age 39 have success with IVF cycle 1,2,3 using frozen egg and either live sperm or frozen donor sperm ?

Also, keep in mind having at least one child earlier in your fertility years increases the chances that you can become PG later ( ie; the 41 year old mother who is on her 5th kid is much more common than the 40 year old woman who has never been pregnant getting PG at 40

[Anonymous]

I’m the egg freezing success story posted further up, but I too would encourage either freezing embryos OR thawing eggs before your natural fertility is completely gone. I was really glad to ultimately get pregnant with a 35 year old frozen egg, but I’m also glad that I thawed them at 39 so that if they didn’t work, I’d at least be able to try with my current eggs (even if my personal odds had diminished a lot by then).

I’m also glad that I only thawed 50% of them at once, even though it cost more to not fertilize them all at once. There is some lab and tech error possible in all of this and I think moving my second batch to a better lab for fertilization helped.

I think if you are freezing eggs with the intention of thawing at 43 or 44, you have to make peace with the fact that you may have to turn to donor eggs if the frozen ones don’t work.

Frozen eggs greatly increase your odds of an own egg baby, but they don’t guarantee one. That said, 100% worth it to increase your odds and buy yourself a few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who did this in her 30s, and thawed them at 43 after she got married. None of the eggs survived thawing. She had no good eggs left at 43. It's no guarantee. Maybe freeze some as embryos, since they freeze better, if you really want to keep options open.

Yes! I know someone in this same position. She is heartbroken.

better to just use a sperm donor now with you in your mid 30's with still viable eggs.

I got PG on my 1st IUI at 37 ( not even IVF ) so basically my out of pocket was less that $5, 0000 ( $1K for diagnostic work up, $2,500 for 12 vials of sperm and $500 for the IUI )

The upside: once you are a Mom you'd be surprised how much more singularly focused you are about everything in your life: career, who you date ( or not ), money management. Everything. No more interest in dating men who just do not meet my standards. Laser focus on what is important in life: my baby's future

Just take the first step and you'll see same. Just ask any other SMBC who was in her 30's

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who did this in her late 30s, but has not been successful with IVF using the thawed eggs now in her early 40s.

Yes this. Thawing embryos is MUCH more successful, and that is not guaranteed. Freezing and thawing eggs is incredibly tricky. I think it works much better with very young eggs, like if you froze your eggs at 19. But of course no one does that, because at 19 you think you'll definitely meet someone in the next 15 years.

I'm just wary of doctor's who tout that this is a great idea. It's a bit of insurance, but it is not a guarantee. I think understanding that going in is important, because it's not cheap.

Also, word of caution on clinics that encourage young women to freeze their eggs: the same clinics make LOTS of $$$$ off of marketing and selling the eggs of young, healthy women

A very close friend of mine who, as a 25 year old, needed IVF for her and her husband to have children was so " encouraged " by her IVF clinic to " donate" her unused eggs after successful IVF- basically, my friend : a beautiful 25 year old, athletic, blonde & blue eyed was offered FREE IVF rounds in return for her excess eggs as a healthy 25 year old. Her clinic probably made $100,000's of dollars off of selling those eggs.

Just sayin' .... there is a reason " freeze your eggs " is marketed and it is NOT to help women have children in their 40's.... that may be a secondary outcome, but the clinics marketing this do it because their BIG cash flow comes from older women who need viable eggs

I think any ethical fertility doctor sitting across a consult desk with a 35 YOA woman should be bound by ethics to tell her that there is less than 50% chance her eggs will be viable if/when she thaws them in a few years AND they may not implant as her Uterine wall ages and her hormones levels start to drop - none of which ANY fertility doctor can predict

[Anonymous]

I froze eggs at 34 and 38 at two different fertility clinics in NOVA. Obtained 10 from the first; 16 on the second. Fast forward to 41 when I married; we did a combined three cycle IVF (froze 8 embryos on the first two cycles) with thawing of all 26 eggs on the third cycle. All 26 eggs died at thawing. Only one of my embryos from the three IVF cycles became a blastocyst on day 7 which tested abnormal.

Fortunately, I decided to have a child on my own via IVF between my two egg freezing cycles so as heartbreaking as it was, I had my child. my husband and I did two more IVF cycles and we had our baby on the last one when I was 43 years old.

Lesson: frozen eggs are not guaranteed, particularly for women in their 30's. Embryos are better, particularly if they are tested.

While frozen eggs are better than nothing, I would never consider it insurance or a fall back plan. If you feel strongly about having children, freeze embryos and get them tested.

[Anonymous]

I froze my eggs last summer as insurance that may prove to be useless, but I knew that going in, and accepted that I may just be saying good-bye to $12,000.

Here are some tips/things to think about-
1. Prescription Emla numbing cream was $10 and made the injections painless and so easy to do.

2. You will need a lot of flexibility in your schedule for the twice daily injections, and you'll be going in for blood draws about every other day for two weeks.

3. If you have plenty of eggs, I'd use birth control if they recommend it. I didn't because I was worried it would lower the number of viable eggs, but it actually helps all the eggs grow at the same rate so they can all be mature and viable. During the ultrasounds I would have between 20-30 follicles, 17 eggs extracted, but only 10 were mature.

4. Start taking your vitamins several months in advance. I ended up taking a prenatal, vitamin D, and CoQ10 for a year because I decided to delay my procedure because of Covid. I also upped my protein and tried to gain some healthy weight.

5. Eat before your blood draws. I passed out at one of mine. The nurses were lovely, but I was very embarrassed. I also used the numbing lotion for the blood draws as I found them surprisingly painful.

6. All the hormones are hard on your body. Perhaps it's because I'm petite (I was under 110 lbs), but I realized after freezing my eggs that I really don't want to do IVF, but we'll see what happens.

7. The retrieval was painless, and I experienced no pain afterwards.

8. My period timing has been wonky ever since.

9. I developed melasma, hyperpigmentation often called "the mask of pregnancy," afterwards from all the hormones. I've also had hair loss that may or may not be related, but it lines up time wise.

[Anonymous]

Why not more embryos instead of just eggs? I've got both on ice. I will start trying this summer for my 39th birthday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not more embryos instead of just eggs? I've got both on ice. I will start trying this summer for my 39th birthday.

Because you may be waiting to meet your partner and not want to make embryos with a stranger. Most women that freeze eggs dont think they’ll be a single mom by choice

[Anonymous]

The earlier the better because you get more quality eggs most likely. 38 is too late. a quality clinic would tell you that, there are no guarantees but at least you would be dealing with younger eggs than your own at 38

[Anonymous]

I recommend freezing eggs and freezing embryos with donated sperm.

If you start decide to start a family at a later age, say at any age after age 37, don't try for a whole year or even 6 months before going to an RE. Go to the RE and have your bloodwork done as soon as you want to start a family to see where you are. And, I would recommend starting immediately with IVF using your own fresh not frozen eggs after 3 months. At 37, you would still have 3-5 years where your own eggs might be okay - higher chance they are abnormal but the eggs will not need to survive thawing.

Donor eggs will cost between $6,000-$10,000 per cycle.