Quite often, after you have opted for IVF as a fertility solution, the next obvious question is whether to use fresh eggs or frozen eggs. Can frozen eggs help you get pregnant more quickly or more slowly? The question is not unfounded.
Which eggs are more likely to result in pregnancy has been a topic of intense discussion within fertility circles. When fresh donor eggs are used in IVF cycles and the retrieved eggs are promptly fertilised with either the intended father’s sperm or donor sperm, the pregnancy results are usually good.
However, it is important to note that egg quality is significantly impacted by age. Donor eggs that have been extracted and cryopreserved before fertilisation also give good pregnancy outcomes.
It’s important to remember that not every frozen egg will successfully implant or fertilise. Egg freezing generally helps women who wish to postpone having children by increasing the likelihood of a successful pregnancy when they are younger.
After undergoing IVF, a procedure that comprises stimulation and egg collection, the freezing is set to take place. Before this, the specialists determine which eggs are mature, separate them from surrounding cells and have them frozen in liquid nitrogen.
If you’re under 35, freezing your eggs today will provide you with a greater chance than using your fresh eggs later on. It is more likely to provide you with a greater chance of producing a healthy baby than when you plan to use your fresh eggs, say in five years. But note that fresh eggs are preferable to frozen eggs if you wish to become pregnant right away.
But there are some conditions under which you are better off considering egg freezing. A good instance is if you are about to undergo medical treatment that might affect your fertility or you are about to receive treatment for an illness that may affect your fertility.
As stated earlier, age is the key factor for egg-freezing success even as egg-freezing is rapidly emerging as a viable clinical technique to preserve women’s fertility, as long as the eggs are frozen at a clinically optimum age.
However, there are fewer egg-thawing treatment cycles than egg-freezing cycles, suggesting that although more women are freezing their eggs, many of them may not be trying enough to utilise the frozen eggs for a pregnancy.
While your age at the time that the egg is thawed has relatively little impact on chances of success, the age at which the egg is frozen is key. Evidence shows that if eggs are frozen below the age of 35, the chances of success will be higher than the natural conception rate as the woman gets older. If you are over 40 and want to freeze your eggs, the likelihood of a future pregnancy is slim.
Essentially, there’s no perfect age for egg freezing, but the earlier the better because as you get older, the quality of the eggs remaining in your ovaries deteriorates. So, how long can your eggs actually remain frozen?
The longest-known time for using frozen sperm to create babies is over 27 years. The man was having cancer treatment as an adolescent and the frozen sperm was then used 27 years later when he had a partner and was ready to have children.
But it is unlikely that anyone would intentionally want to wait that long. Your eggs are at their best quality when you are young, so it seems sensible to freeze eggs at a younger age.
In the United Kingdom, eggs and sperm can be legally stored for up to 55 years if you are deemed to be at increased risk of ‘premature’ infertility such as before cancer treatment.
While success rates are not the only consideration, other factors may lead women to consider freezing their eggs later in life. It could be because as a younger woman, when you freeze your eggs, you may not actually need to use them if you’re capable of conceiving naturally.
But if you freeze your eggs in, say your late 30s, when your fertility is already in decline, the process may be more invasive and expensive, and more cycles may be needed to collect the required number of eggs, and the birth rate will be lower.
However, you’re more likely to return to using your frozen eggs. The cost of egg freezing varies but typically it’s affordable. Before the eggs have been fertilised, you can specify how long you wish to keep the eggs stored and what should happen to them if you were to become unable to decide for yourself.
Clinics have an ethical responsibility to clarify that egg freezing below the age of 35 offers women their best chance of creating their much-longed for family.
Also, just as mentioned earlier, freezing for medical reasons is a primary reason for egg preservation. It increases in success rates when it is done early enough and offers hope to patients who need to freeze their eggs due to medical reasons.
The most common age for women using thawed donor eggs is higher than for women using their eggs. Egg freezing is a significant investment and, as with all fertility treatments, you should get informed of all the relevant costs and issues upfront so you have an accurate idea of how much the full process is likely to be.
Credit: Abayomi Ajayi