Egg-freezing can help you if you wish to help preserve your fertility, to have children later in life. But did you know that your chances of pregnancy are affected by the age you are when you undergo egg-freezing?
At a recent fertility conference, one of the studies discussed focused on the reasons for egg-freezing, which showed that almost three-quarters of women who decided to freeze their eggs wished they had done so earlier in life, with 37 being the average age of women freezing their eggs.
So does your age really impact on your egg-freezing prospects? Generally, the younger you are when you freeze your eggs, the better your chances of success when you decide to use them to conceive, simply because of your age. Fertility in women begins to decline in the early 30s and even more so when you your mid to late thirties, as the quality of your eggs declines the older you are.
So if you freeze your eggs when you are 34, your eggs will be of better quality than they would be if you wait until you are 38 to freeze your eggs. This is one of the reasons why our egg donors and egg-sharers have to be aged 35 and under at Manchester Fertility, to ensure the eggs which we are offering to those who need our help are the best quality they can be.
If you’re considering egg-freezing, one of the first steps of your treatment is a fertility analysis, including an Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) test. This gives us a good indication how many eggs are left in your ovaries, and how well you may respond to the stimulation necessary for egg-freezing.
We will only recommend egg-freezing as an option to help preserve your fertility if your fertility analysis shows you are suitable for the treatment, and we will always be honest about your chances of success.
Remember that pregnancy rates using frozen eggs depends on a number of things, including whether your eggs survive the freeze/thaw process, the quality of the eggs retrieved, your age at the time of retrieval, how many of your eggs are fertilised and how many quality embryos are available for transfer.
Your retrieved eggs will be stored by us in our laboratory, at our state-of-the-art clinic in South Manchester. Eggs can be stored for up to 10 years and when you are ready to use the eggs to conceive you have the option to either use donor sperm from your choice of our available sperm donors, or your partner’s sperm if you are in a relationship when you wish to try for a baby using your eggs.
If you’re interested in egg-freezing, please speak to our friendly team today on 0161 300 2737 for more information.
Last updated: 25th July 2013
