Just chill baby! Hit the snooze button on your biological clock! Freeze and forget about it!
We’ve been hearing a lot about egg freezing in the past few years but there’s a common misconception that women are freezing their eggs solely to focus on their careers. A job isn’t the only reason why women are putting their eggs on ice though. Sometimes, it may come down to one simple factor – they haven’t met “the one” yet. Imagine that? Actually holding out till you meet someone you want to spend the rest of your life with?
Egg freezing is when eggs are frozen and stored. Freezing your eggs does not mean that you will have to use them to conceive, but if you find you have fertility issues when you are ready to have children, they are available as an option. The freezing process is called vitrification. Vitrification instantly freezes your eggs at the quality they were when you went through this family planning/fertility help process.
Declining Reserves
We’ve heard time and time again that age and fertility are a factor. This is because women are born with approximately two million eggs in their ovarian reserve and that reserve decreases as the years go by. By your mid-twenties, you may already be down to 300,000 eggs. Then, around 35, the quality and quantity begin to drop. As per the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, women under 30 have about a 25% chance of getting pregnant. Women over 30 have a 20% chance, and by 40, it’s drops to a noteworthy 5%.
If women want to make sure they don’t settle (which is smart thinking!), and they know that their ovarian reserve is decreasing the older they get, getting their fertility tested, seeing where their health is at and considering freezing their eggs seems like a viable option. That way, they can play the field, continue dating the person they are seeing a little longer to be sure, or swipe left as many times as they want to without worry about their egg quality.
When is a Good Time to Freeze Your Eggs?
Whether you’re newly divorced, married but not yet ready to have children (you can freeze both eggs and embryos in that case), in a relationship but not certain if it’s serious just yet, or you know for sure you’re very much dating someone you’ll be telling your therapist about rather than your future kids, these are all reasons to consider pursuing freezing your eggs.
To find if you’re a candidate for egg freezing, you can make an appointment with Kofinas Fertility where we will discuss your overall health history and perform a physical exam plus an ultrasound. This will enable us to view your uterus and ovaries to make sure everything looks normal. An ultrasound will also provide an idea of how many eggs you have. Then, some blood work will be taken to look at your hormone levels.
Even in circumstances where egg freezing is elective and non-medical, an unknown fertility issue can occasionally be discovered. Of course, this can range from polycystic ovary syndrome to endometriosis to blocked fallopian tubes but the good news is if the interest in egg freezing helped discover this issue, we can treat it and help you manage it proactively!
Whatever your reason for considering egg freezing; career, love, health or all of the above - why not get the egg rolling today and make an appointment for a fertility assessment? The future you (not to mention your future partner) might thank you for it!
