After singer Rita Ora revealed that she froze her eggs in her early 20s, egg freezing has been a hot trending topic.
But before you rush onto the egg freezing bandwagon, here are four things you need to know if you’re considering egg freezing as a way to preserve your fertility:
We need to check if you’re suitable for egg freezing first
Did you know that not every woman can or should egg freeze? Suitability is dependent on things like your age, ovarian reserve and likely response to ovarian stimulation, which can mean egg freezing isn’t a good idea for you.
To egg freeze you need to undergo ovarian stimulation, exactly as if you were having IVF. This is so you have mature eggs ready to freeze. Not all women respond well to ovarian stimulation, or have enough eggs to mature.
Your age may also be a barrier to egg freezing. Egg quality is vital to your chance of future pregnancy, and this generally declines as you get older. Rita Ora froze her eggs when she was young, when her fertility would have been at its peak. If you don’t consider egg freezing until you’re 35 and above, you may already be at a disadvantage.
We’ll assess your fertility through comprehensive testing and take into factors such as your age, when advising if egg freezing is something you can consider.
Egg freezing isn’t a guarantee of future pregnancy success
You need to be aware that freezing your eggs now isn’t a cast-iron guarantee of a baby in future.
Remember lots of things depend on pregnancy, including how many of your eggs survive the freeze/thaw process, the quality of your eggs, the quality of sperm for fertilisation, embryo development and successful implantation.
At Manchester Fertility treatment using frozen eggs currently has strong success rates comparable to treatment using fresh eggs, thanks to the advanced techniques and technologies we use.
These include time-lapse embryo selection, Preimplantation Genetic Screening, Endometrial Receptivity Array testing to identify the optimum time for embryo transfer and EmbryoGlue to help implantation.
We’ll always be open and honest with you about your likely chances of future success, so you can make an informed decision about whether to progress with fertility preservation.
Egg freezing methods matter
How your eggs are frozen can affect if they are viable for use in future fertility treatment or not. We use the very latest freezing method known as vitrification, or ‘fast freezing’.
This method minimises the formation of ice crystals in your eggs, resulting in high survival rates after thawing. We can store your eggs in our laboratory at our Cheshire fertility clinic for up to 10 years.
Counselling is a vital part of the egg freezing process
Egg freezing can be an emotional decision and it’s important that you go into the process fully aware and informed about the likely outcome for you. In addition to the expert advice of your fertility specialist, you’ll also be offered counselling with our fertility counsellors.
It’s so we can ensure you’re prepared for all possible outcomes in future and understand what egg freezing really offers.
Egg freezing and fertility preservation in Cheshire & Manchester
If you’re interested in egg freezing, speak to our friendly Patient Advisors on 0161 300 2737or self-refer here. We’ll make you a consultant appointment so your suitability for fertility preservation can be properly assessed and we can discuss it thoroughly with you.
Last updated: 1st December 2017
