You’ve just launched your career, you haven’t found the right partner, or you’re embarking on a treatment protocol that may jeopardize your fertility. Whatever the catalyst is behind your decision to freeze and preserve your eggs for future use, there are some timing issues that can boost your chances of success down the road.
At California Center for Reproductive Health, under the experienced guidance of Dr. Eliran Mor, our team of reproduction specialists is invested in the family-building dreams of each of our Greater Los Angeles area patients. To ensure that you have the tools you need to realize your goals, we offer expert egg freezing services.
Here’s a look at how your timing can contribute toward a successful outcome when it comes to egg cryopreservation.
Younger may be better
As with many things in life, earlier is better when it comes to harvesting your eggs. When your body hits the biological clock button when it passes through puberty, it races into reproductive mode in earnest.
To give you a better idea of what happens, let’s put some numbers to your fertility. When you’re born, you have about one million egg-containing follicles, which is the highest number you’ll ever have. In fact, by the time you pass through puberty, you only have about 300,000 follicles to work with, thanks to natural attrition. And of these follicles, you will only ovulate about 300 of them during your reproductive years.
During your 20s, everything works smoothly and your ovulation produces healthy, viable eggs through its strong follicles. This process tends to peak by the time you hit 30, which is when you hit peak fecundability (the likelihood of conceiving per given month of trying — which is about 20%).
Once you’re in your 30s, your ovulation begins its slow decline as you march toward menopause. After the age of 35, your egg quality and number drops considerably, and by the time you’re 40, you have less than a 5% chance of getting pregnant per monthly cycle.
This doesn’t mean to say that women can’t start a family in their 30s or 40s — many have and will continue to do so. But if you don’t like playing such low odds, egg freezing offers you the opportunity to strike while the ovulation iron is hot.
Is there a best age for egg freezing?
We know this article is about the best age for freezing your eggs, but we’re going to back up and point out that every woman is different, with different considerations guiding their family-building dreams.
That said, if you’re in your 20s or early 30s, and you’d feel more comfortable with a little insurance when it comes to future pregnancy, now is the time for us to harvest your eggs. A big benefit of our egg harvesting services is that we’re able to gather far more than just one. By stimulating your ovaries using medications, we can collect up to 15 eggs for cryopreservation.
If you’re over the age of 35, and you’re facing a situation in which you’d like to preserve some eggs for the future, cryopreservation is not out of the question. To start, we can run some tests to check your ovarian reserve, and if we find it’s adequate, we can successfully harvest and preserve your eggs, as well.
If you have more questions about egg freezing and want to explore whether you’re a candidate, please don’t hesitate to give us a call. Or you can use the online scheduling tool to set up an appointment.
