The Best Age to Freeze Eggs for Future Pregnancy?

Egg freezing is a method used to save women's ability to get pregnant in the future. Mature oocyte cryopreservation is another name of egg freezing. When the eggs are frozen and stored for future use, it is known as egg freezing. The frozen eggs can be thawed, combined with sperm in a laboratory. In the future, whenever the eggs are needed, they can be implanted in your uterus through a technique called In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). One must seek expert advice before deciding for fertility preservation. It is advisable to know all the related potential risks before opting for egg preservation.

Why is Egg Freezing done?

For the women who are not ready to become pregnant currently but want to ensure that they successfully conceive later in the future, egg freezing is a good option. Sperms are not required for the egg freezing because the eggs are just frozen and not fertilized like under embryo cryopreservation. Women will need to use some fertility drugs only as with embryo freezing, which will help women to ovulate. This will help women to produce multiple eggs for retrieval.

Best Age for Egg Freezing

It is quite disputable to ascertain the best age for egg freezing. For the woman who is in the twenties does not need the egg freezing since women can conceive naturally till her thirties. As per the egg freezing centers in India, the fertility of women and age has an inverse relationship, so, 27–34 years can be in the bracket of the best age for egg freezing, subject to the need, age, and other personal reasons.

When to consider for the Egg Freezing?

● When women have a condition that can affect their fertility.

● When women are struggling with cancer or another illness and need treatment which can affect her ability to conceive

● Women undergoing in vitro fertilization

● When women wish to preserve younger eggs now for future use

Egg retrieval Process

Egg freezing consists of multiple steps as under:

● Ovarian stimulation

In it, the ovaries are stimulated to produce multiple eggs (unlike single egg every month), synthetic hormones are used. Various medications are used for the ovary's stimulation. Blood tests to measure the response of women to ovarian stimulation medications help the doctor to monitor the progress. With the development of the follicles, estrogen levels typically increase, and until after ovulation, progesterone levels remain low. The monitoring of the development of follicles (fluid-filled sacs, where eggs mature) is done using vaginal ultrasound. It is a procedure that uses sound waves to create an image of the inside of your ovaries. Generally, after 10–14 days, follicles are ready for egg retrieval. With the help of the medication, eggs can mature.

● Egg retrieval

Typically egg retrieval takes place under sedation in the doctor's clinic. Usually, an ultrasound probe is inserted into the vagina to identify the follicles for egg retrieval. Then a needle is directed into a follicle through the vagina. The egg is removed from the follicle with the help of a suction device connected to the needle. As per the experts, the more the eggs retrieved, the better are the chances of birth. So, multiple eggs are removed around 10-15 per egg freezing cycle. A woman might feel mild cramping, fullness, as ovaries remain enlarged after the egg retrieval.

● Freezing

Eggs are cooled to a sub-zero temperature to preserve them for future need, once the unfertilized eggs are harvested. Compared to the makeup of a fertilized egg (embryo), it becomes a bit more difficult to freeze because of the composition of an unfertilized egg.

After the procedure

Within a week of the egg, retrieval women can resume normal activities. It is advisable to avoid unprotected sex to prevent an unplanned pregnancy. If the women are facing any of the below problems, then she must contact the health care provider:

● Body temperature higher than 101.5 F

● Severe abdominal pain

● Gaining more than 2 pounds of weight within 24 hours.

● Heavy vaginal bleeding which can be as heavy as filling more than two pads an hour

● Difficulty urinating