Taking Control of Your Timeline: The Ultimate Guide to Egg Freezing

Life doesn’t always follow the timeline you planned for starting a family. Career goals, relationships, or not feeling ready can influence when you decide to have children. Fortunately, advances in fertility treatments give you more options for preserving your reproductive potential for the future.

Egg freezing, also called oocyte cryopreservation, allows you to freeze unfertilized eggs that you can use later. While egg freezing isn’t a guarantee of a successful pregnancy, it can give you more flexibility for your reproductive future.

At CARE Fertility in Bedford and Fort Worth, Texas, our fertility specialists offer egg freezing at our state-of-the-art embryology lab for those looking to preserve future fertility.

Here, we share how egg freezing works, when to consider it, and what to expect during the retrieving process. 

What is egg freezing?

Egg freezing is an infertility treatment for women. It involves retrieving healthy eggs during ovulation and freezing them to subzero temperatures. When you’re ready to use them, we thaw the eggs, fertilize them, and place them in your uterus. 

Embryo banking differs from egg freezing in that we fertilize the eggs first and then freeze them.

More women are choosing to freeze their eggs to increase the timeline of their biological clock. Many women are delaying pregnancy to focus on their career, to find the right partner, or because they’re not ready for a family.

Best time to freeze eggs

The best time to freeze eggs is in your 20s or early 30s. This is the age you're most likely to produce an abundant amount of viable eggs for freezing. 

As you get older, we may not get as many viable eggs during a single retrieval. You may need additional cycles. 

What the egg-freezing process involves

Egg freezing is a medical procedure that includes multiple injections, ultrasound testing, and a procedure performed under sedation.

First, you inject hormone medication every day for 10-12 days. This medication increases egg production so we can maximize egg retrieval. During this time, we do blood tests and ultrasounds to monitor the eggs and determine the best time to inject medication that helps the eggs mature so we can retrieve them.

You then undergo a 15-30 minute egg retrieval procedure with sedation. You remain at the clinic for observation and then go home and rest the remainder of the day. Meanwhile, we freeze and secure your eggs in our lab.

Things to consider

Egg freezing gives you more control over your pregnancy plans, but it’s important to understand the process before making a decision. Your age, overall health, and future life plans can influence whether egg freezing makes the right choice for you.

You also want to consider the time commitment, side effects from fertility medications, and the costs of egg retrieval and long-term storage. 

Most importantly, freezing your eggs doesn’t guarantee successful pregnancy in the future. The number of healthy eggs retrieved, your age at retrieval, and other factors can affect success. 

We complete a thorough evaluation so we can understand your situation, discuss your options with you, and help you take control of your reproductive timeline.

We’re happy to answer your questions about egg freezing. Call CARE Fertility today or request an appointment online to schedule your consultation with our caring team.